We final week solid doubt on experiences that the micro-LED Apple Watch Extremely mission had been cancelled, and a brand new supply-chain report seems to verify our view.

It says that whereas Osram was in line to produce micro-LED screens for the Watch, and has been dropped by Apple, the Cupertino firm continues to be engaged on the mission, and is just looking for new suppliers …

Final week’s Micro-LED Apple Watch Extremely experiences

Two experiences final week mentioned that Apple’s micro-LED Apple Watch Extremely mission was apparently cancelled, primarily based on a press release by an Apple show provider.

These had been primarily based on one recognized truth: An organization referred to as AMS Osram mentioned that massive micro-LED mission on which it was working was abruptly cancelled by the shopper.

We described product cancellation as unlikely

Issues bought very speculative from there, as we famous:

An organization which can or could not have been a future Apple provider, and which can or could not have been the corporate’s sole deliberate micro-LED associate, has a mission cancelled by a shopper who could or could not have been Apple, and which can or could not imply the entire micro-LED Apple Watch Extremely plan has been deserted.

We steered that, at most, this would possibly imply a delay to a product whose timing had at all times been unknown, with conflicting experiences suggesting deliberate launch dates of 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027.

Provide-chain experiences again our view

Later the identical day, TrendForce weighed in, declaring that Osram isn’t the one potential provider, and that Taiwan and South Korea every has loads of firms capable of supply all the mandatory tech.

Digitimes has right this moment echoed this view, and gone additional to say that Apple is actively looking for new suppliers.

Trade observers identified that Apple stays dedicated to microLED know-how and is anticipated to discover various suppliers. Taiwan’s AU Optronics (AUO) and PlayNitride, which have simply begun mass manufacturing of microLED watch show panels and chips respectively, are among the many potential frontrunners to satisfy Apple’s manufacturing wants.

The report means that Apple was certainly the Osram shopper to cancel, however this was as a result of the would-be provider had not proven the progress anticipated of it. It says the mission continues to be very a lot alive.

Regardless of terminating cooperation with Osram, Apple nonetheless has a number of inner groups devoted to Micro LED tasks, actively looking for various suppliers since 2023. 

As we mentioned final week, the query relating to a micro-LED Apple Watch isn’t if, however when.

Photograph by Daniel Romero on Unsplash