Apple Drops Plans to Develop MicroLED Displays for Apple Watch

[Surf Monkey]

When Steve came back, one of the first things he did from an organizational perspective, was give Jony Ive and the Industrial Design team the most operational power after him. He essentially made Apple into a design-driven company. Under Cook's leadership, that has been undone. The majority of the original design that were there under Steve Jobs and Jony Ive have now left and the current design team now reports to Jeff Williams, an operations expert.

I’ve been saying this for a long time. Cook isn’t a creative. He appears not to genuinely understand the value of creatives. He has systematically removed designers and other creatives from leadership roles and replaced them with MBAs.

Apple is a DESIGN company. Cook’s retooling it as a money machine may be fine for investors but it’s horrible for consumers and will catch up with the company sooner or later.

 

[FNH15]

One of the problems with Apple in the 90s was that they didn’t know when to say “no”. That’s how you got a sprawling Mac lineup, and a “Mac-Like Things” group peddling stuff like the PowerCD.
So while this is disappointing for now, it’s not necessarily a bad sign.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Hahaha Jesus Christ that’s quite a take, I’m sure you’ll still buy the next iPhone and another MacBook Pro etc, but if this comment makes you feel cool then go for it I guess lol

Just looking at the track record, Apple has been on a streak of failures. The comment you replied to is not far off the mark. It’s been a VERY long time since Apple had a home run

 

[coolfactor]

Billions spent on Apple Car with nothing to show for it. Billions spent on microLED with nothing to show for it.

Eek.

Don't spread misinformation. "Nothing to show for it" is such a misrepresentation, it's not even funny.

Research and Development contributes to the evolution of technology in ways we can't fathom.

The Car project contributed to the new CarPlay tech, computer vision, object recognition, crash detection, and likely much more.

We may not get an Apple-branded car, but the cars we do drive will have an Apple influence to some degree.

 

[smulji]

We may not get an Apple-branded car, but the cars we do drive will have an Apple influence to some degree

That's assuming car makers choose to adopt the next generation of CarPlay & buy into Apple's vision for it.

 

[coolfactor]

Just looking at the track record, Apple has been on a streak of failures. The comment you replied to is not far off the mark. It’s been a VERY long time since Apple had a home run

😱

A-series processors?
M-series processors?
iPhone adoption?
Apple Watch adoption?
Seamless experience across Apple devices?
Vision Pro? (best is still coming)

Apple is doing a TON of stuff really well.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Don't spread misinformation. "Nothing to show for it" is such a misrepresentation, it's not even funny.

Research and Development contributes to the evolution of technology in ways we can't fathom.

The Car project contributed to the new CarPlay tech, computer vision, object recognition, crash detection, and likely much more.

We may not get an Apple-branded car, but the cars we do drive will have an Apple influence to some degree.

Sure. But unused R&D is a waste of resources.

 

[Surf Monkey]

😱

A-series processors?
M-series processors?
iPhone adoption?
Apple Watch adoption?
Seamless experience across Apple devices?
Vision Pro? (best is still coming)

Apple is doing a TON of stuff really well.

Wow. Odd series of cherry picked metrics that aren’t even very accurate.

 

[citysnaps]

I understand the potential power advantages of micro LED, but frankly, as a long time Apple Watch user I am fine without it. Glad to see Tim recognizing the risks in continuing with pouring more R&D into it and deciding to shut it down.

Same here. My current Apple watch and OLED display are great. Only uses 25% of the battery in a 24 hour period.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Not sure how much credit Johny Srouji & Team gets for Apple's success of late (i.e. the amazing chips in every device), but no matter how much it has not been enough. Tim & Co. need to assess what makes a great tech leader because maybe some of the top folks are under-performing (but they are still VERY rich).

 

[EugW]

And yet there were all those people who claimed micro LED was right around the corner so we shouldn't have gone with OLED.

 

[Bearxor]

MicroLED is just so much more robust than OLED. Manufacturing it is the problem. But in time it will be everywhere.

Yeah microled is the future, but not quite yet…

 

[Surf Monkey]

A-series processors?

Not exactly earth shaking.

M-series processors?

Unless you count the M2.

iPhone adoption?

Apple has failed to achieve its iPhone sales goals outside of the US and Western Europe.

Apple Watch adoption?

Apple Watch was an abject failure until Apple gave up on the dream of developers giving it a reason to exist and it only became popular once Apple conceded that it isn’t a platform but a fancy Fitbit.

Seamless experience across Apple devices?

The “seamless experience” has become increasingly tattered over the years with obvious and unaddressed bugs piling up with each new release.

Vision Pro? (best is still coming)

You don’t know that. Apple could drop the Vision tomorrow. It hasn’t shaken up the industry. It isn’t the massive revolution Cook tries to peddle it as.

Apple is doing a TON of stuff really well.

And they’re also failing in areas that used to be their core competencies.

Sorry for the double reply. I felt my initial one needed more detail.

 

[t0rqx]

This is a win for Apple. They MicroLED feature which would justify another price increase gets dropped. However the price will be increased without putting effort.

 

[CWallace]

OLED has burn-in issues that drives the need to move away from it for the Watch, but it is the so-called major upgrade for the next round of iPad Pros - make of it what you will.

iPad Pros are said to be using two-stack OLED panels which will significantly mitigate burn-in.

I’m thinking Tim Cook’s days might be numbered…I’m sure there is more. But it’s really starting to pile up.

Do you know what is also piling up at Apple? Stock valuation. And as long as that keeps happening, neither the Board nor the institutional shareholders will touch him.

I said it before and I will say it again. Tim Cook has to go, he is destroying the company. Zero innovation, zero emotion, zero everything. Only greed is left.

But as Gordon Gecko said: "Greed is good" - at least to the shareholders who will ultimately decide if Tim leaves before he is ready to.

When Steve came back, one of the first things he did from an organizational perspective, was give Jony Ive and the Industrial Design team the most operational power after him. He essentially made Apple into a design-driven company.

And how often was this forum full of people bitching about some design decision Ive and Company had taken with their shiny new gadget? "Too thin!" "Not enough ports!" "I have to turn it over for five minutes to charge it!"


Apple's massive money hoard is what allows them to take literal billion-dollar risks on things because if they fail, they don't lightly wound the company, much less kill it. People complain Apple cannot "innovate", but so many of the products people point to as "innovative" end up not being commercially successful because those companies "half-ass it" due to lack of design talent, engineering talent, money, or a combination of some or all of them. Apple is often "late to the party" due to spending more time on design and engineering (and the spend both demand), but when they do show up with their product, that product is generally commercially successful within a number of years and mostly or wholly supplants the original "innovator".

 

[Anaxarxes]

It’s bad news because it means we won’t get micro-LED anytime soon (like this decade).

 

[citysnaps]

😱

A-series processors?
M-series processors?
iPhone adoption?
Apple Watch adoption?
Seamless experience across Apple devices?
Vision Pro? (best is still coming)

Apple is doing a TON of stuff really well.

Spot-on. And I'd add as CEO Cook did an outstanding job keeping Apple's 160,000+ employees fully employed during the pandemic. While many other well known tech companies had massive layoffs.

 

[CWallace]

Yeah microled is the future, but not quite yet…

Like commercial nuclear fusion power plants, (affordable and practical) commercial MicroLED displays always seems to be "just 10 years away".

 

[Jensend]

I swear macrumors has published this same article 4 times now. They are moving forward with MicroLED, they aren't , no wait, they are - never mind they aren't anymore.

Time to get some new sources.

This is MacRumors.com
If you don't like rumors, I suggest MacFacts.com

 

[tdar]

This is really sad news. First for the people who are losing their jobs. But also for us who have an Apple Watch Ultra. The thing that I wanted most on a new watch was the Micro LED screen. Sadly that doesn’t seem like it’s coming. At least for a while. But I hope that Apple will talk with their friends at Sony. They have also spent around a zillion dollars to work on micro LED displays for TV’s. And they have been successful. They just cost a lot. But Apple Watches screens are so much smaller than a TV that’s 110 inches across. Maybe they can make something happen.

 

[gaximus]

Billions spent on Apple Car with nothing to show for it. Billions spent on microLED with nothing to show for it.

Eek.

Vs companies that spend that and put out a crap product because they want something to show for it. Apple has invested a lot of money in a ton of products that we will probably never hear about, and thats a good thing. The money spent on these R&D project will end up in other products, just not these new product categories. It’s not wasted money, if the money spent shows that it would have been wasted.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Vs companies that spend that and put out a crap product because they want something to show for it.

*caugh*Vision Pro*caugh*

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple COULD, but decided not to because of cost.

Quite a justification for the tech company that most overcharges for everything..

Tim Cook didn't want to get trapped by the sunk-cost fallacy. Better to cut losses now and use the money toward their next big ($90 billion?) stock buyback program which Apple is expected to announce during their next earnings report in May.

Apple launches a second $90B share buyback program

One year after introducing a $90 billion stock buyback program, Apple has launched another to recover an extra $90 billion of common stock.

appleinsider.com

Occurring regularly since 2012, Apple has habitually launched programs for share repurchases. Since 2012 until the end of 2022, Apple spent in excess of $572 billion on share buyback programs.


1) buy back AAPL stock
2) which helps increase Earnings Per Share (EPS)
3) and supports AAPL stock price
4) which affects how much stock Tim Cook gets
5) Profit!

Apple CEO Tim Cook requests and receives a 40% pay cut after shareholder vote

Apple CEO Tim Cook will receive a pay cut in 2023, targeting $49 million in total compensation, the company said in an SEC filing.

www.cnbc.com

Cook is paid mostly in restricted stock units. The number of actual shares of Apple stock that Cook vests depends on the company’s performance versus the S&P 500. Apple’s stock has done well enough that Cook typically vests the maximum amount.


YTD
S&P 500 = +9.9%
AAPL = -10.5%

1 Year
S&P 500 = +30.94%
AAPL = +8.16%

2 Year
S&P 500 = +15.37%
AAPL = -1.40%

 

[Tagbert]

Hahaha, fair enough. What I was trying to get at was that further improvements in screen quality on the watch aren’t desirable to me because I’m not using it to watch movies. OLED, of course, is already great.

I had just assumed that they were using the Watch as a testbed for microLED. It would be a low risk, relatively low volume platform where they could launch a new screen tech and see how it performed in the real world before they committed to putting it on the phones.

 

[now i see it]

When you’ve got hundreds of billions of $$$ to toy around with pie in the sky ideas — this is inevitable