Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Report: Apple Investing $330 Million in Taiwanese Factory Where MicroLED Display Development Will Be 'Top Priority'

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
69,014
40,042


Apple is reportedly weighing up a $330 million investment in a Taiwanese factory to manufacture both LED and MicroLED displays for future iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and other devices. According to Taiwan Sourcing Service Provider (CENS), Apple is teaming up on the new factory with LED producer Epistar and LCD panel maker AU Optronics.

microled.jpg
Apple is teaming up on the new factory with Epistar, Taiwan's top LED producer, and Taiwanese LCD panel maker, AU Optronics. The plant will be located in the Longtan branch of the Hsinchu Science Park and Apple's total investment is estimated at NT$10 billion (US$334 million).

The new plant would be an expansion of Apple's operations in the area, and the company has reportedly sent a development team to Taiwan to work on the project. Apple has long been expected to use of Mini-LED and Micro LED across a range of products, including at times the 2020 Apple Watch, and now a future refresh of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
The report highlights the advantages of Mini-LED and MicroLED screens over LCD and OLED displays, including being thinner and more energy efficient. For example, the power consumption of MicroLED screens is only one-tenth that of LCD displays, and the color saturation is close to OLED.
Like OLED, micro-LED is self-luminous. However, compared with OLED, micro-LED can support a higher brightness, higher dynamic range, and wider color gamut, all the while achieving a faster update rate, wider viewing angle, and lower power consumption, all qualities favored by Apple.
Click to expand...
According to the report, owing to the difficulties involved in developing MicroLED technology, early designs will rely on Mini-LEDs that are somewhere in between traditional LED and MicroLED technology. However, Apple still considers MicroLED technology to be the "top priority."

Apple has six mini-LED products in the works that are set to debut in 2020 and 2021, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple is said to be debuting the technology in a high-end 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, which will launch in the fall, a 27-inch iMac Pro, a 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, a 16-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌, a 10.2.-inch iPad, and a 7.9-inch ‌‌iPad‌‌ mini.

Kuo has not mentioned launch dates for the other devices with the exception of the ‌‌iMac Pro‌‌, which Kuo expects to launch in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the 7.9-inch ‌‌iPad‌‌ mini, which he says will launch in 2020.

Apple has also reportedly been testing prototype ‌Apple Watch‌ models with MicroLED displays since 2017. While rumors have suggested an ‌Apple Watch‌ with a microLED display could launch as early as 2020, Twitter leaker @L0vetodream on Sunday poured cold water on that prediction by claiming that this year's Apple Watch Series 6 will use the same OLED display as previous models.

Article Link: Report: Apple Investing $330 Million in Taiwanese Factory Where MicroLED Display Development Will Be 'Top Priority'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/01/apple-invests-330-million-taiwan-micro-led/
Last edited:
Thanks Apple once again for forgetting your original bread and butter, USA. So much jobs needed in USA and yet apple has only a small factory for desktop in USA that done even sell much. SHAME!

If only i was so not tied to the apple ecosystem. Shame on me.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Michaelgtrusa
Please no new iPad (pro) with new (mini)led display this year. Thanks

(my iPP 2020 is getting delivered soon)
 
fokmik said:
Very good investment since the microLED will be the top display for the next 20-25 years
Click to expand...
I year ago I would have agreed, but a new contender seems to be Quantum Dot OLED. It has many of the advantages of MicroLED (Brightness, longevity, color accuracy) and may be more cost effective to produce.
It will be interesting to see how the two products mature.
 
Actively following this stuff, and even I constantly get confused by Mini-LED/Micro-LED naming. Wish the pixel LED version was called Nano-LED's or something slightly different then mini/micro.
 
[AUT] Thomas said:
Can someone logically explain why µLED should first come to something like the Apple Watch that relies on a high DPI display when the major challenge in µLED technology is shrinking it? AFAIK the highest DPI display to date has 220 PPI.
And according to other rumors production yield on such high DPI µLED is extremely low...
Click to expand...

There are plenty of uLED at 500ppi+ some 1000ppi, and even up to 2000ppi. ( You can do a simple google search )

It will first come to Apple Watch which has the PPI range of iPhone ( 326PPi ) . And it is a low volume product ( Low by Apple's standard ). Apple Could even have Apple Watch Special Edition or Pro Edition with uLED and charge it $200+ more just to test out the test and production issues.

iPhone is an extremely high volume product. That is why it is hard to put any latest tech into it. The Pro and Mainline series each sold for about 50M unit per year. There are no other SKUs / Models from other vendor which is close to that number in a Global Scale.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert
CarlJ said:
They’re skipping over NanoLED and going to PicoLED.

Though I won’t be upgrading until FemtoLED.
Click to expand...
I question the efficiency implications of squeezing 1e6 LEDs in per-pixel. :)
[automerge]1591033030[/automerge]
err404 said:
I year ago I would have agreed, but a new contender seems to be Quantum Dot OLED. It has many of the advantages of MicroLED (Brightness, longevity, color accuracy) and may be more cost effective to produce.
It will be interesting to see how the two products mature.
Click to expand...
But that’s the great thing about quantum dots. You can just make everything quantum dot. QD-MicroLED Would beat QD-OLED. QD-Ice Cream is smoother and creamier than frozen custard. But QD-Frozen custard is actually negative calories.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: CarlJ
[AUT] Thomas said:
Can someone logically explain why µLED should first come to something like the Apple Watch that relies on a high DPI display when the major challenge in µLED technology is shrinking it? AFAIK the highest DPI display to date has 220 PPI.
And according to other rumors production yield on such high DPI µLED is extremely low...
Click to expand...

Expanding on what ksec said, display components are usually manufactured in large “sheets“ and then diced up into individual device sizes. Yield issues near or in the production stage will often be problems affecting small portions of each sheet. (The same general logic applies to post-dicing steps.) If your sheet was destined to become a thousand Apple Watch screens, you’ll probably be getting quite a few perfectly unaffected parts out of problematic sheets; if you were dicing for just four massive Pro Display Max screens, you’d have to bin the whole sheet or make your customers very unhappy...
 
  • Like
Reactions: tongxinshe
CIA said:
Actively following this stuff, and even I constantly get confused by Mini-LED/Micro-LED naming. Wish the pixel LED version was called Nano-LED's or something slightly different then mini/micro.
Click to expand...

the problem comes from manufacturers calling some screens "LED".
  • They do that now for LCD screens with LED backlighting.
  • Mini-LED is LCD with small, dynamically adjustable LED backlighting.
  • In both cases, these are LCD screens with some kind of LED backlight.
Micro-LED is where the pixels are actual LED emitters and there is no separate backlight. This is closer to OLED but has some advantages due to not being organic components.
 
Last edited:
ksec said:
There are plenty of uLED at 500ppi+ some 1000ppi, and even up to 2000ppi. ( You can do a simple google search )

It will first come to Apple Watch which has the PPI range of iPhone ( 326PPi ) . And it is a low volume product ( Low by Apple's standard ). Apple Could even have Apple Watch Special Edition or Pro Edition with uLED and charge it $200+ more just to test out the test and production issues.

iPhone is an extremely high volume product. That is why it is hard to put any latest tech into it. The Pro and Mainline series each sold for about 50M unit per year. There are no other SKUs / Models from other vendor which is close to that number in a Global Scale.
Click to expand...

Relatively low volume *and* smaller screens are easier to produce without flaws than large ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ksec
cmaier said:
I question the efficiency implications of squeezing 1e6 LEDs in per-pixel. :)
[automerge]1591033030[/automerge]

But that’s the great thing about quantum dots. You can just make everything quantum dot. QD-MicroLED Would beat QD-OLED. QD-Ice Cream is smoother and creamier than frozen custard. But QD-Frozen custard is actually negative calories.
Click to expand...
You could make a QD-MicroLED and it would likely be slight better, but there probably won’t be much improvement vs OLED. Once you get past a certain brightness the light source used for a per pixel emissive QD display shouldn’t matter much. It will boil down to cost.
 
Tagbert said:
the problem comes from manufacturers calling some screens "LED".
  • They do that now for LCD screens with LED backlighting.
  • Mini-LED is LCD with small, dynamically adjustable LED backlighting.
  • In both cases, these are LCD screens with some kind of LED backlight.
Micro-LED is where the pixels are actual LED emitters and there is no separate backlight. This is closer to OLED but has some advantages due to not being organic components.
Click to expand...
lol I'm well aware of what they are, it's just the naming is so similar I often get them confused.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back