Apple kills in-house effort to make Apple Watch microLED displays, cuts jobs

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Apple is scrapping a long-running project to design and develop its own smartwatch displays, putting an end to another pricey research and development initiative. microLED, which is made from millions of microscopic light-emitting diodes, uses less power, offers superior color accuracy, and allows for thinner devices (i.e. svelter Apple Watches).

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
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In recent weeks, the company has ceased an in-house effort to create screens with microLED technology, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The displays, which featured brighter and more vibrant visuals, would have been added to a future version of the Apple Watch — before potentially going into other products.

But the cost and complexity of the effort ultimately proved too great. So Apple is now reorganizing the teams that handle display engineering and eliminating several dozen roles in the US and Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

The move to shutter the project came around the same time as the company’s decision to cancel work on a self-driving car. In both cases, Apple is giving at least some affected employees the opportunity to find other roles within the company. If they can’t get new jobs — a likely scenario for some of them — the workers will be laid off and provided severance.

The effort kicked off about seven years ago… Apple even built its own screen manufacturing facility in Santa Clara, California, near its Cupertino headquarters, where hundreds of employees could test the production of microLED screens. Many of the job cuts involve people at that site — along with Apple display engineering centers in Asia near the company’s supply-chain hubs.

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MacDailyNews Take: So, while it could still come to Apple devices someday, don’t hold your breath for microLED.

Boy, the recent raft of about-faces, settlements, and boondoggle knifings sure smack of buttoning things up and clearing the decks, don’t they? But, for what?

Dare we dream?