Apple will start making screens in-house in 2024 in a shift away from Samsung

The company aims to introduce swapping displays in the highest-end Apple Watches by the end of next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The screens upgrade the current OLED — organic light-emitting diode — standard to a technology called MicroLED, and Apple plans to eventually bring the displays to other devices, including the iPhone.

The changes are part of a broader effort to replace Apple’s supply of parts with indigenous parts, an undertaking that will give the company more control over the design and capabilities of its products. The tech giant has dropped Intel Corp. chips in its Mac computers in favor of in-house designs and plans to do the same with key wireless components in its iPhones.

A representative for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.

Apple’s Screen Switch has been around for years. Bloomberg first reported the company’s plans to design its own displays in 2018, starting with the Apple Watch. The move will deal a blow to Samsung Display Co and LG Display Co, the two main suppliers of watch screens.

Apple’s project is being led by Wei Chen, who runs Apple’s Display Technologies group within Johnny Sorji’s Hardware Technologies division. The company has started testing the MicroLED display on an update to its new high-end sports watch Apple Watch Ultra.

Compared to current Apple Watches, the next-generation display is designed to offer brighter, more vibrant colors and the ability to view better at an angle. According to people who have seen them, who asked not to be identified because the project is still under wraps, the display material appears to be painted on top of the glass.

The MicroLED display will be Apple’s first screen designed and developed entirely in-house. The company currently receives screens from a number of manufacturers, including Japan Display Inc, Sharp Corp and BOE Technology Group Co, in addition to Samsung and LG.

Samsung, which competes with Apple in the smartphone market in addition to serving as a supplier, declined to comment, as did LG.

Bloomberg reported at the time that the work, codenamed T159, extended around 2018 and that Apple was aiming to start switching to MicroLED screens in early 2020. But people involved in the work said the project has been shelved due to high cost and technical challenges. Apple initially aimed to incorporate the technology into larger displays, but those concerns have led it to focus on its watch — whose screen measures about 2 inches — its first mobile device with the capabilities.

Apple’s 2024 target could potentially slip to 2025, some people involved in the project said. The company may also offer a limited supply of the new equipment to start the transition.

Although Apple has designed the new displays and devised their manufacturing process, it will rely on an outside supplier to handle mass production. The company operates a 62,000-square-foot facility in Santa Clara, California — about 15 minutes from its Apple Park headquarters — where it test manufactures the screens. It has a similar research and development complex in Taiwan.

Apple has so far devoted several billion dollars to the effort, which is internally considered one of the company’s most important projects — along with flagships for an electric car, a mixed-reality headset and its watches. Efforts to develop health facilities. The company will spend about $26 billion on research and development in FY2022.

In the near term, the new display is the most important change coming to the Apple Watch. The company plans to introduce new models later this year, but they will be minor updates focused on faster chips and minor health sensor upgrades. Apple hasn’t updated the main processor inside its watch for three years.

The company has also adapted the display for its upcoming headset, which will use technology similar to the MicroLED screen coming to the Apple Watch. While it will take years for Apple to move the iPhone to microLED, it plans to bring OLED technology to the iPad with the Pro model in 2024, Bloomberg has reported.

The transition to microLED has been a long time coming for Apple. The effort began in 2014 when Apple bought startup LuxVue, which pioneered microLED technology. Development of Apple’s own screen was led by Lynn Youngs, a veteran executive in Apple’s hardware engineering division, but two years ago the work was shifted to the realm of Saroji, who oversees the company’s custom chip group.

The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.