According to media report on the 19th, Apple will independently design and produce Micro LED display , The secret factory near the California headquarters has been used to produce a few screens for testing. The materials used by MicroLED are different from the current ones. OLED The screen is expected to make future devices more slim, clearer, and more energy-efficient. Analysts believe that this move is the latest measure for Apple to automate its key components. Facing the weakening of the growth momentum of the mobile phone market, in order to strengthen control and flexibility Sex, Apple began to use all kinds of methods to cut costs and try to keep the pace of innovation uninterrupted. Increasing its own research and development efforts has become an inevitable choice.
Affected by Apple's news, Samsung Electronics and other related suppliers' share prices generally fell during Asian trading hours. Many analysts predict that Apple will also abandon more parts of the cooperative suppliers in the future.
Focus on MicroLED technology
According to sources, the production of the MicroLED screen is much more difficult than Apple's first use of the OLED screen on the iPhone X. Apple almost gave up the project about a year ago, but its team of engineers has made progress. The technology is currently in its late stages. , But consumers may need to wait another few years to see further results.
MicroLED, also called micro LED, was first invented by American scientists in 2000. MicroLED and OLED are all composed of light-emitting diodes. The difference lies in the composition of LED materials. MicroLED technology uses inorganic in the light emitting part. Gallium Nitride (GaN) material. This material can provide higher brightness than OLED products, with faster response speed, contrast, and color saturation than OLED screens. display The effect is better. Due to the use of inorganic materials, MicroLED does not suffer from the problem of short-lived OLED screens. At the same time, MicroLED can make the screen panel thinner, and in terms of power consumption, it is also much lower than the OLED screen.
Since MicroLED is too 'micro', how to transfer and paste tiny components into micro-sized screens has become a difficult problem. As early as 2014, Apple started to lay out MicroLED technology by acquiring LuxVue.
Analysts said that taking control of MicroLED technology will help Apple break through the increasingly mature smartphone market and surpass rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which owns high-end display technology. However, the prospect of this project is not clear, and the mass production of new screens needs to be new. The production equipment, at the same time there is the risk of the emergence of alternative technologies, in addition the investment in this project will be quite high.
The news of Apple’s independent research and development of MicroLED technology undoubtedly constituted a bad display for a series of display suppliers. On the 19th, Samsung Electronics' share price fell by 0.78%, LG's share price fell by 1.6%, and Japan Display's share price fell by 2.42%. The stock price fell 1.71%. Market participants also believe that the share prices of companies such as Synaptics, a provider of man-machine interface solutions, and Universal Display, an OLED technology developer, will also be negatively affected.
Increase independent research and development efforts
In the long run, Apple has increased its efforts in independent research and development in recent years. Although the initial investment in independent research and development is relatively large, once it is completed, with Apple’s hundreds of millions of iPhone sales per year, it will save a lot of patent fees. The use of other company's technology, in the supply chain will be more or less subject to the people, completely independent research and development can also consolidate Apple's position in the smart device industry.
In the field of processor chips, Apple had acquired the R&D layout for its own chips as early as 2008. On the iPhone 4, although its processors were not completely designed, they laid a solid foundation for this. In 2012, Apple released iPhone 5, the phone's A6 processor is its own custom designed chip, later A series processors and other chips are all leading the same performance in the same period. Future, whether it is iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, consumers All will see the A series, S series and other processors. According to reports, Apple also plans to carry its own research and development of T series processors on its Mac computers.
In terms of modems, the iPhone has been using Intel and Qualcomm's modems. However, according to sources, Apple has been researching modems for several years. Its self-developed products will be used for the iPhone 9's A12 processor in the fall of 2018.
At the same time, Apple has also reduced its dependence on its important graphics processor (GPU) vendor Imagination Technologies. In the area of autonomous power management chips, Apple has also gradually distanced with its partner Dialog. Some media reports that Apple is developing independently. An internal chip designed to manage the power supply to enhance the iPhone's battery life.
