AppleInsider Staff
The flexible AMOLED display found in Apple's new smart watch is believed to be among the most-costly mobile device displays available, according to a new report, with the 1.5-inch units thought to cost more than half as much as the 4.7-inch LCD in the new iPhone 6.
The plastic-backed AMOLED display in the 42-millimeter Apple Watch is pegged at an approximate all-in cost of $27.41 per unit, market research firm NPD DisplaySearch said on Monday, compared to the $45 per unit estimate from IHS for the 4.7-inch Retina display in the iPhone 6. Both costs include the display itself, as well as touch modules, cover glass, and the labor needed to build the components.
Despite the high price, only $7.86 of the $27.41 total is said to come from the display itself. Most of the additional cost comes from the cover glass — Â though it not clear whether sapphire is included in this calculation — Â and the touch module.
"The plastic AMOLED offers design flexibility and is very rugged," NPD manufacturing research executive Charles Annis said in a release. Much of that flexibility stems from its significantly thinner profile — 65 percent thinner and lighter than a traditional LCD, and 50 percent thinner and lighter than a glass-backed AMOLED display.
"Apple's choice of a plastic AMOLED as the display medium for its Watch reflects not only its strategy of emphasizing quality, but also suggests increasing confidence in flexible displays as an enabling technology for wearable computers," Annis added.
Apple's entry into the OLED supply chain is also likely to have a significant impact on shipments of smaller OLED displays. While shipments of OLED displays headed for smart watches have held steady at around 1 million per quarter for the last year, Apple alone is expected to consume some 8 million displays in the fourth quarter of 2014 as it gears up for the Apple Watch launch early next year.
William Gallagher
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74 Comments
With a full year of manufacturing capacity build out and advancement, seems like a logical conclusion to draw is OLED coming soon to iphone for the battery life advantage.
I love my new iPhone 6 128 Space Gray. We just had a new Whole Foods store open in our town, and I can't wait to try out Apple Pay there and elsewhere—with my iPhone and with my Apple Watch.
Life is good.
Love it that Apple just keeps on doing what it does best: great design, great products, great ecosystem, all of which make our lives better.
One rather reliable index of Apple's escalating success is the escalating volume of its "detractors." Most likely paid shills, bottom feeders.
I am looking forward to this release, it will be a massive selling device. I know several people, real people - not Apple buffs or gadget freaks - that have said they will be buying this day one. One even said they want all three of the offered variants ! I took a look in a jewellers window at the various Tag Hauer's, Omega's - etc some of them are HUGE ugly things compared to the refined design of the AppleWatch, and all they do is keep time reasonably well. AppleWatch will do and is so much more !
Flexible for manufacturing purposes, presumably, since nothing about the design released so far, at least that I have seen, indicates a flexible device - in fact quite the opposite.
1) I've suggesting for a couple years now that AMOLED would likely be the best choice for a wearable because of the deep black that would meld into the border nicely, as well the ability to have very few pixels lit up for the clock or other tasks to help conserve battery life, and the demo we saw definitely points in that direction, but how does NPD DisplaySearch know this as a fact? 2) How can NPD DisplaySearch make this prediction down to the penny but then not be clear as to what they include in reference to the display components? :???: [quote name="Jerry602" url="/t/182559/apple-watchs-advanced-amoled-display-far-more-costly-than-traditional-screens-report#post_2609259"]With a full year of manufacturing capacity build out and advancement, seems like a logical conclusion to draw is OLED coming soon to iphone for the battery life advantage.[/quote] I don't see that happening anytime soon. [quote name="muppetry" url="/t/182559/apple-watchs-advanced-amoled-display-far-more-costly-than-traditional-screens-report#post_2609302"]Flexible for manufacturing purposes, presumably, since nothing about the design released so far, at least that I have seen, indicates a flexible device - in fact quite the opposite.[/quote] I hate when that's not explained well. Too many people still see the word flexible in regards to a component and assume the device will be that way. PS: I still have hope that Apple will go the more complex route of making a new core style every year which will allow the S-series [U]complete[/U] SoC (and perhaps the sensor array packed around the ceramic inductive charging unit) to be replaceable for many years done the line with a standard size and interface design. I think this would give the best of both worlds for a "smart"-watch insofar that one can collect the yearly styles but have a modern "smart"-watch without losing most features. If you are spending thousands on a gold ?Watch every year then paying $150 for a the updated S-series SoC to be installed probably won't be an issue. I'm hoping that's why they decided to put everything into one chip and seal it with resin, which I hope has least an IP67 rating.