The day before, the well-known author of publications about Apple products on the pages of Bloomberg, Mark Gurman, announced the company’s decision to abandon another long-term initiative. After seven years of development, it will no longer attempt to create microLED displays for use in proprietary Watch smartwatches.
Brighter displays of this type, with improved color reproduction, should have been included in the Apple Watch first, but over time the company could introduce them to larger devices. As the source notes, these efforts were too costly and encountered technical difficulties, so Apple was forced to abandon the efforts. The Apple specialist teams involved in the development of microLED are being downsized and reorganized.
Previously, Apple preferred to rely on developments in the field of creating displays, which were offered to it by partners such as LG Display or Samsung. By developing its own competencies in this area, Apple hoped to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. MicroLED technology seemed promising because it improves the quality of color reproduction, reduces power consumption and reduces the thickness of the device body. Starting with the Apple Watch, the company eventually hoped to displace OLED using microLED from its smartphones, tablets and laptops.
As Bloomberg notes, attempts to create its own microLED displays were launched by Apple about seven years ago. It was originally planned that the created microLED displays would appear in Watches by the beginning of 2020, but the deadlines were constantly being pushed back. The company even built a small production line in California, where it planned to establish pilot production of displays of this type, and specialized research centers were organized in Asia. Bloomberg representatives managed to verify this past week that the plant in California is still operating, people are leaving the building, and their personal cars are in the parking lot.
According to the source, Apple is not abandoning the idea of using microLED displays in its other devices, with the exception of the Watch, but is trying to find new technologies for their production and contractors who can master them. Bloomberg representatives cannot predict when this initiative in its current form will bear fruit.
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