News
News Categories

Apple reportedly wants to make its own microLED display

By Cookie Monster - on 19 May 2023, 12:00am

Apple reportedly wants to make its own microLED display

The 2025 Apple Watch Ultra might be the first product from the company to sport a microLED display.

Apple is reportedly investing a lot of efforts in microLED production.

Sources told Nikkei Asia that Apple is increasingly involved in the production of the microLED displays. Apple's ultimate goal is to reduce reliance on Samsung Display and have more control over the supply of the next-generation display technology.

One source claims Apple spent at least $1 billion in R&D and samples for microLED in the past decade. Apple is even involved in the designing of the driver integrated circuits and some production equipment.

Sources added that Apple has R&D teams for microLED in the U.S, Taiwan and Japan. The iPhone maker also has secret R&D facilities in the Longtan District of Taiwanese city Taoyuan.

Despite the heavy investment over the past 10 years, Nikkei Asia reports that Apple's microLED technology is still at the sample stage and there are still many obstacles to overcome. The tentative plan for Apple is to debut microLED on the Apple Watch in 2025 before bringing it to the iPhone. 

Apple acquired LuxVue in 2014, which was a company that had been quietly working on low power, microLED screen technologies. In 2018, Bloomberg reported that Apple was developing its own microLED displays at a secret facility near California. Foxconn and PlayNitride were rumoured to be Apple's partners for microLED.

Focus Taiwan claimed in 2020 that Apple was building a new plant in northern Taiwan to make miniLED and microLED displays. Earlier this year, Bloomberg said that Apple is nearing the launch of its own microLED panels after 6 years of development.

It could take a few years for Apple to bring microLED to the iPhone after its initial 2024 timeline for the Apple Watch, but display analyst Ross Young revealed last month that the plan has been "pushed out" to the second half of 2025. The Korea Herald reported last month that Apple will continue to rely on Korean suppliers in the near term for its microLED transition.

Source: Nikkei Asia

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.