A number of resellers have run dry of Apple Thunderbolt Display inventory, suggesting the 27-inch monitor may be due for an upgrade, perhaps with a thinner design that takes cues from the latest iMacs.
As of Monday, major resellers , , and are all out of stock of the Thunderbolt Display. Stock-outs are often one of the first signs of a forthcoming upgrade to Apple hardware.
At the very least, the Thunderbolt Display is in need of an upgrade to its MagSafe cable. Apple currently ships a MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter with every Thunderbolt Display to allow compatibility with the latest MacBooks.
But the Thunderbolt Display and its predecessor, the Cinema Display, have historically borrowed LCD technology from Apple's all-in-one iMac lineup. And the iMac was with a reengineered display panel that is thinner and reduces glare by 75 percent.
Miroslav Djuric, chief information architect with the repair wizards at iFixit, noted to ÌÇÐÄVlog that the current-generation Thunderbolt display employs the as the previous generation of 27-inch iMacs: an LG-built TFT active-matrix LCD panel.
"Think of the Thunderbolt display as an iMac minus the computing hardware," Djuric explained.
If that trend were to continue, an updated Thunderbolt Display would include a thinner LCD panel, and likely an overall thinner design. Apple's new 21.5-inch iMac actually has the as its predecessor, but the panel is 5 millimeters thinner, suggesting the same components have been squeezed into a smaller space.
Apple also made its new iMacs thinner by fusing the LCD to the front glass. Djuric said he expects that design decision to also be utilized in a next-generation Apple Thunderbolt Display.
However, if Apple is planning to bring the new iMac panel design to a refreshed Thunderbolt Display accessory, the new big-screen monitor's arrival may not be imminent because of potential production issues.
Apple's new 27-inch iMac remains in because of apparent production issues associated with the display. Until those issues are worked out, Apple may not have enough panels to also provide for a new 27-inch Thunderbolt Display.
One report last week claimed that Apple and LG have only been able to produce about 100,000 27-inch iMacs per month. Apple's online store continues to advertise that new orders of the 27-inch iMac ship in three to four weeks.
Analyst Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities was first to reveal that Apple was planning to use a new screen lamination process in its redesigned iMacs. Kuo also noted that manufacturing of the panels would be difficult.
Another possible upgrade for the Thunderbolt Display could be its ports: The current model features three USB 2.0 ports, but Apple began offering faster USB 3.0 connectivity on its 2012 Macs, including the redesigned iMac. USB 3 offers transfer rates up to 5 Gbps, compared to just 480 Mbps for USB 2.
The Apple Thunderbolt Display was released in , making it the world's first display compatible with Apple's high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology. In addition to the aforementioned MagSafe charging cable and three USB 2.0 ports, the 27-inch screen includes a FaceTime HD video camera, 2.1 speaker system, one FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.
Apple also still continues to sell the previous-generation 27-inch LED Cinema Display for older Macs that have a Mini DisplayPort instead of the newer Thunderbolt port. Both the LED Cinema Display and the Thunderbolt Display are sold for $999.