Last week, we heard a rumor that Apple would be bringing microLED to the Apple Watch in 2024. Which left a lot of people scratching their head, since it’s such a small display and won’t really be able to take advantage of the benefits that microLED provides. However, now we are hearing that Apple is planning to bring microLED to its entire lineup, but it could take a decade.
In Gurman’s latest edition of his newsletter, he states that Apple has spent about six years developing microLED technology. Which would be the first custom-designed display from the company. Apple first started working on this project back in 2017. These displays are intended to improve brightness, color reproduction and viewing angles. As Gurman said, “making images look like they are painted atop the glass display”.
iPhone is likely next, after the Apple Watch Ultra
Gurman believes that the Apple Watch Ultra would get microLED in 2024, and after that, the iPhone would be next in-line. Which it would likely be on the iPhone Pro series (or maybe Ultra by then?). After that, Gurman believes that these custom-designed microLED panels would make their way over to the iPad and Mac.
Apparently, Apple’s long-term plan is to make microLED displays for all of its key products. However, that move could take a decade to actually happen. Keep in mind that the iPhone will have had an OLED display for about six years before they make their way over to the iPad. That’s quite a long time.
This is part of Apple’s latest quest to bring more and more parts of its products in-house. Not only allowing Apple to control more of its devices, but also get a bigger profit margin. We recently heard that Apple is planning to bring their WiFi chips and Bluetooth chips in-house in the next few years. It already does its own processors for all of its products. So this is the next logical step.