Apple Reportedly Plans to Start Using its Own Displays in 2024

Apple is reportedly working on its own displays for its mobile devices, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Apple Watch could be the first Apple product to ship with an in-house display in 2024, and the iPhone could be next in line.

“The company aims to begin by swapping out the display 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,” Gurman wrote.

According to the report, Apple is already testing its own microLED displays on a new Apple Watch Ultra prototype. “Compared with current Apple Watches, the next-generation displays are designed to offer brighter, more vibrant colors and the ability to be better seen at an angle. The displays make content appear like it’s painted on top of the glass, according to people who have seen them, who asked not to be identified because the project is still under wraps,” the report reads.

Apple currently uses displays from competitors like LG and Samsung in its various products, but the company aims to have more control over its own hardware. That’s what led Apple to replace the Intel chips in its whole Mac line with Apple Silicon over the past two years.

In addition to working on its own displays, Gurman also reported that Apple is currently hard at work on a new combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip to use in its own products instead of Broadcom chips. Moreover, the company is also developing its own cellular modem to replace Qualcomm parts, and the shift could happen by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

Apple often gets credit for its ability to integrate hardware with software, but pushing forward with more vertical integration could well help the company improve the battery life of its various products. As an example, Apple still promises up to 18 hours of battery life on its Apple Watch Series 8 (up to 36 hours in Low Power mode), which still isn’t great compared to the up to 36 hours of battery on the Apple Watch Ultra.

As the Mac’s transition to Apple Silicon is still ongoing in 2023, it will likely take years before Apple can fully stop relying on displays, modems, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips from third-party manufacturers. However, companies like Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, and Broadcom ultimately have a lot to lose by seeing such a big customer replace their products with in-house components.