Kulicke & Soffa, a supplier rumored to be involved with the microLED Apple Watch effort, has confirmed the abrupt cancelation of a high-end project with an unnamed “strategic customer” likely to be Apple. The supplier confirmed the cancelation in an official form to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In the form, Kulicke & Soffa confirmed that the project, referred to as “Project W,” had to do with its “advanced display market” sector. The firm goes on to state that the project involved one of its “strategic customers,” and that the project specifically sought to develop a method to mass-produce certain components for an advanced display technology. Kulicke & Soffa states that it has already begun dismantling the project at a cost of $110 million.
While neither Apple nor microLED are explicitly named in the form, Kulicke & Soffa is likely referring to the Cupertino company’s longstanding efforts to release an Apple Watch model with a microLED display within the next few years. Reliable displays analyst Ross Young chimed in on Kolicke & Soffa’s announcement, hinting that the firm was responsible for developing the microLED transfer process, in which tiny LEDs are transferred from a silicon wafer to the actual display substrate.
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Last month, another rumored microLED supplier named OSRAM announced it had shut down work on a “cornerstone project” with an unnamed customer. The scope of OSRAM’s canceled project was so substantial that it forced the company to reevaluate its entire microLED strategy. Some reporters speculated that Apple might still be working on its microLED Apple Watch project despite OSRAM’s statement and that the company has simply shifted work to other suppliers. However, Kulicke & Soffa’s announcement further cements the idea that the microLED Apple Watch project is dead for good.
Apple was rumored to have been affected by multiple delays for the first microLED Apple Watch. The company initially sought a release date as soon as this year before being pushed back to 2025. However, Apple was unlikely to release a microLED Apple Watch before 2026 at the earliest due to a prohibitively expensive production cost per panel.
Apple ultimately planned to move all of its products to use a microLED display, a project it began working on with its acquisition of LuxVue a decade ago. It’s currently unclear the direction Apple will take with microLED following the apparent cancelation of its Apple Watch project, but the technology might one day make its way to Vision Pro and eventually AR glasses.
