William Gallagher
For the third year running, the rumor mill is saying that Apple has to push back releasing an Apple Watch Ultra with microLED display another year, this time until 2027.
Following the first two generations of the Apple Watch Ultra, it was reported that there would not be a third the next year, as might have been expected. It was then suspected that the delay of Apple Watch Ultra 3 to perhaps 2025 would have been at least in part because of difficulties making microLED screens.
Later, similar reports of LG buying patents to speed up the process of developing microLED screens were followed by news that a 2026 date was more likely.
Now The Elec says that industry sources believe that even a 2027 release date is uncertain. The publication says that as yet Apple has not been able to finalize the component supply chain.
It's also claimed that the barrier to producing microLED screens is cost rather than technical constraints. The Elec says that Apple's simulations of manufacturing and estimates of production yields mean an Apple Watch Ultra 3 screen would cost $150 to make.
That estimated cost is for a similar 2-inch display as used now. The current Apple Watch Ultra screen is believed to cost Apple $38 per screen.
The Elec estimates that at this price, Apple would sell a microLED Apple Watch Ultra for around $1,500.
A microLED screen uses miniature LEDs to create the display grid. It means that such a screen would be 30 times brighter than the current Apple Watch Ultra's OLED display.
Note that The Elec is a decent source of information from within Apple's supply chain, but it is less accurate in predictions it forms about what Apple will do. Friday's report is more of the latter.
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
5 Comments
I will be amazed if they get MicroLED in the Apple Watch. Every time I have seen a prototype TVs at CES with MicroLED, it looks fantastic far away, but if you get really close (like a foot from the screen), you can see the gaps in the pixels (the old screen door effect like plasma TVs). Might not be that bad on a TV, but you would hold a watch pretty close.
Yes, but the large displays you're talking about are LEDs but not micro-LEDs. Micro LEDs have sizes measured in microns. This is Apple - there's no way they'd do it without "Retina resolution".
Ahhh... I see the large display folks co-opted the term. Well, most of those large displays use an LED technology with pixels that are a millimeter wide. This is not the technology aimed at small displays.
As long as the rumors are 2 to 3 years out, it means these rumormongers are at best guessing, and the intimation of what Apple is doing or wants to do is at best speculation and at worst fantasy.