Apple plans microLED displays in everything after 2024 Apple Watch Ultra update

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Apple Watch edited January 2023
Apple's use of microLED will explode to its entire product line after an update to the Apple Watch Ultra in 2024.

Apple Watch Ultra
Apple Watch Ultra


Apple has been developing its microLED display technology for quite a few years, and is anticipated to use it in an update to the Apple Watch Ultra in late 2024. Beyond then, the company may add the same tech to the rest of its product catalog, including its iPhone, iPad, and Mac lineup.

After spending some six years on its own custom-created microLED displays, codenamed T159 back in 2017, Apple is getting close to realizing the tech in an actual product, according to Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg.

A supply chain report earlier in January indicated the tech could land in 2025 in the Apple Watch, but the 2024 update to the Apple Watch Ultra is still believed to be the first to get the tech.

After that 2024 release, Gurman forecasts that Apple will turn to the iPhone lineup for the next microLED upgrade, then to be followed by the iPad lineup and then the Mac range. Apple is also expected to add microLED to all of its key product categories, eventually.

It's reckoned that the plan could be longer-term than people may think, with it taking up to a decade before arriving on Mac, in part due to the technology's complexity. Gurman points to how iPhone will have used OLED displays for some six years by the time iPad is expected to use the technology, and a similar lag could happen with microLED.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    TheObannonFileTheObannonFile Posts: 110member
    Cannot wait for this to become the standard/norm. Mega benefits across all product categories. 
    Xed
  • Reply 2 of 9
    thttht Posts: 5,444member
    Ross Young said that there would be 6 Apple products with miniLED about 4 years ago. That didn’t pan out. So, predictions out 5 to 10 years are not that good. 
  • Reply 3 of 9
    XedXed Posts: 2,546member
    tht said:
    Ross Young said that there would be 6 Apple products with miniLED about 4 years ago. That didn’t pan out. So, predictions out 5 to 10 years are not that good. 
    The tech existed then and I'm sure Apple was investigating and testing it out as soon as they could, but production levels are harder to come by, especially at Apple's volumes. I'd expect to see microLED in several other shipping products of lower volume (and likely lower display quality) before I'd expect it to show up in the Apple Watch, which is the likely first run of the display from Apple.
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 4 of 9
    johnkatosjohnkatos Posts: 10member
    Please explain how this works. From everything I've read it seems that the problem with micro LED is making it small. Whereas Apple seems to be making it small then moving to larger screens.
    JP234
  • Reply 5 of 9
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Apple should come out with this first for the Ultra for two good reasons. The first is that it’s a small screen. That’s much easier to manufacture in quantity, as any defects that turn up in early production will have more screens that that be used. Just as with chip manufacture, larger ones mean fewer product per wafer or sheet, in the case of screens. So while working out the bugs of production, small screens will result in higher percentages of product. Secondly, price is less of an issue with a small product such as the ultra. It’s $800, and the screen is just a fraction of the size of even an iPhone SE screen. 

    Let’s not make the mistake to think that a Tv MicroLED is the same as that if smaller devices. It’s not. Just as Tv OLEDs are very different from those of smaller devices, the same thing is true fio MicroLED.  A good example is that the iPhone Pro screens can have a full screen brightness of 1,200 bits, and a 20% brightness of 2,000 bits. The best current Tv OLEDs can do is about 650 nits for 10-15% and about 275 full screen. That’s a whale of a difference.
    muthuk_vanalingamFileMakerFeller
  • Reply 6 of 9
    VermelhoVermelho Posts: 56member
    What about Electroluminescent quantum dots that Nanosys is developing?   This looks like even more revolutionary display technology with low energy and substrate needs. Looks like it would be cheaper once mature too.  Would be great for VR/AR and heads-up displays too.    
  • Reply 7 of 9
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,913member
    Apple keep moving in house most of the components design and manufacturing. Apple is working on microLED for the last few years and we know at some point it is coming to Apple products. After watch in 2024, iPhone will get microLED in 2025/26, then iPad and later Macbooks.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Vermelho said:
    What about Electroluminescent quantum dots that Nanosys is developing?   This looks like even more revolutionary display technology with low energy and substrate needs. Looks like it would be cheaper once mature too.  Would be great for VR/AR and heads-up displays too.    
    There have been many “new” screen technologies that never made it. About ten years ago, Canon was working on a new one that was supposed to be much better than both LCD and plasma (remember that?). This was before OLED for Tv came out. It was written about heavily in the tech press. I don’t know if Canon is still working on it, but I doubt it. 

    Even e-ink was proposed (for a short time) as a Tv screen.

    app,e is well ahead of others in the area of MicroLED. Right now, they have most of the patents.
Sign In or Register to comment.