Apple released the first Apple Watch in 2015, complete with OLED display. OLED then rolled out to its latest iPhones and, in the next few weeks, it’s thought, to the new iPad Pro. It had been expected that a future Apple Watch Ultra would be the first Apple Watch to use microLED for its display, a technology that is known for its vibrancy, brightness and brilliance. Alas, that seems to be off the menu again.
In early March, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said, “Apple has cancelled the microLED Apple Watch projects,” but a conflicting report followed soon after which said that the claim was “complete nonsense and doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.”
Now, another industry analyst has weighed in. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims that there was a long-running project to design its own smartwatch displays, and would have been the company’s first homegrown screens.
Gurman describes the project as “another pricey research and development initiative,” and that it has ceased in recent weeks, about the same time as the rumored Apple Car was canned, he says.
Apple has always liked to make as many of its components as it can in-house. It means it’s more in control of the process and less at the mercy of other manufacturers. Of course, as it regularly stresses, Apple doesn’t use off-the-shelf components, but optimizes them considerably. But full customization comes when you make the entire component.
As Gurman points out, it saw a lot of promise in microLED, “which is made from millions of microscopic light-emitting diodes, and wanted to take a key role in developing it. The technology uses less power, reproduces colors more accurately and allows for thinner devices.”
He also claims that just as OLED screens spread from Watch to iPhone, that microLED would be more widely deployed: “It expected to eventually push microLEDs into all of its products, from Apple Watches to iPhones to Macs.”
It seems that the first hints of trouble came when manufacturing partners, recruited to sort mass production tasks, announced they had lost contracts related to microLED projects, such as AMS-Osram AG.
So, is this the end of the road for microLED at Apple? Not necessarily. There’s already one product that uses the technology: the twin eyepieces in the Apple Vision Pro are microLED displays. The new report claims that Apple is looking at potential new suppliers and processes, but any new products are likely years away.
