After several supply chain partners have announced the sudden termination of an undisclosed project rumored to be the microLED Apple Watch, Bloomberg today reports that Apple is indeed shutting out its efforts on the project and will move to lay off many engineers involved.
Apple is no longer designing an in-house microLED panel designated for a future Apple Watch model. The cancelation of the high-stakes project comes several weeks after Apple canceled its efforts to release an electric autonomous vehicle, with the latter reportedly being in development over the last decade. With the microLED Apple Watch project being canceled, the company is reportedly cutting down several dozen engineers in many of its R&D locations within the United States and Asia.
The report adds that Apple still has long-term plans to release products with a microLED display, but it looks like this goal will take several years before it is feasible. Apple originally hoped to release the microLED Apple Watch as soon as this year before being delayed to 2025 and 2026. It now appears that the first product from Apple with a microLED display won’t be available until late this decade.
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The report echoes the reasons behind the cancelation of the microLED Apple Watch. The engineering behind the microLED panels was reportedly too expensive and complex to currently undertake. Apple is restructuring its display engineering teams following job cuts with the termination of the project, with most of these cuts affecting a manufacturing facility owned by Apple in California used to test microLED mass production methods.
Apple had hoped that taking the initiative in designing in-house microLED displays would allow it to lessen its reliance on LG and Samsung, which currently manufacture OLED panels for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple still has some input over the design of current OLED displays, but the company was aiming for tighter control by designing its microLED panels from scratch.
In recent weeks, suppliers like OSRAM and Kulicke & Soffa indicated that they have shut down significant display-related projects involving an important unnamed customer. Many analysts pointed out that the suppliers were likely referring to the microLED Apple Watch effort, and today’s report of Apple laying off a sizeable chunk of its displays engineering groups further cemented the project’s cancelation.
