At the beginning of 2023, Tesla's market value lost about $47.7 billion, and Apple's market value fell below $200 million... These once high-performing stocks can't hold up, and U.S. technology stocks are bleak.
Hiding opportunities in danger. Recently, the latest developments of Apple Micro LED have gone viral in the global technology media, Micro LED has become a new hot spot in the stock market, and related concept stocks have risen.
But Micro LED is full of a lot of false information, stock market traders may just want to use Apple to blow another bubble, investors who do not know the truth may still be immersed in false illusions, pouring into Micro LED concept stocks, waiting to be slaughtered by capitalists.
How is Apple Micro LED progressing? Is it worth the expectations of shareholders?
Apple Micro LED rumors are rife
Recently, rumors have spread that Apple's Apple Watch will use Micro LED.
This wave of Apple Micro LED concept boom was first set off by Hong Kong Haitong Securities. At the beginning of this year, Hong Kong Haitong Securities analyst Jeff Pu released a report that in 2024, Apple's Apple Watch Ultra series will introduce a 2.1-inch Micro LED panel, which is higher brighter and lower power consumption than the current OLED version of Apple Watch.
At present, Apple is trial-producing Micro LED panels at a 62,000-square-foot factory in Santa Clara, California, a 15-minute drive from Apple Park's headquarters.
South Korean media followed up with reports, "Chosun Ilbo" pointed out that BOE has recently been accelerating the development and mass production of small and medium-sized Micro LEDs, and may provide Micro LED panels to Apple Watch Ultra, when the proportion of Apple Watch using Samsung Display Company (Samsung Display) OLED panels may gradually decrease.
In fact, the main suppliers of OLED panels for Apple Watch series are LG Display (LGD) and JDI, and if Apple Watch introduces Micro LED panels, it will have no impact on Samsung's display business.
But that has raised concerns among some people in South Korea who don't know the specifics. South Korean media reported that Apple is the core customer of Samsung display and LGD panels, and if Apple manufactures Micro LED panels by itself, it will have a major impact on Samsung display and LGD panel business. Lee Sang-jin, chairman of the Korea Display Industry Association (KDIA), said, "Apple, South Korea's largest customer, announced that it will produce its own displays, and the sense of crisis is getting stronger and stronger. ”
South Korea's "Electronic Times" even pointed out that Samsung Display launched a Micro LED development project for smart watches, and set commercialization goals, not to ensure technical safety in the research and development stage.
LGD is equipped with Apple Micro LED
In fact, in order to get rid of its dependence on Korean OLED, Apple began to lay out Micro LED very early. In 2014, Apple acquired LuxVue, a Micro-LED company that mastered the technology of huge transfer, broke through some technical checkpoints, and built a Micro LED test line at a secret base in Santa Clara, near its headquarters in California, to tackle the difficulties of the Micro LED process.
Bloomberg reported that Apple's self-developed panel plan, internally codenamed T159, accelerated its development in 2018, when it also set a goal of starting to switch to Micro LED products as soon as early 2020. However, people involved in related actions revealed that Apple's panel plan has stagnated due to high costs and challenges in LED epitaxial wafers and chips, large-area processing, massive transfer, glass-based driving, low-temperature bonding, detection and repair, and colorization solutions. Apple initially aimed to integrate Micro LED technology into large panels, but the above problems led the company to focus on the Apple Watch with a panel size of about 2 inches as a cutting product.
As the main supplier of Apple Watch panels, LGD has been cooperating with Apple Micro LED for LTPS backplane development in recent years. Supply chain source Wang Qiang (pseudonym) revealed to Jiwei that LGD plans to ship LTPS backplanes for Micro LED to Apple in the third quarter of 2024. This may be the basis for rumors that the Apple Watch will adopt Micro LED in 2024.
Unlike LGD, Samsung Display has no plans to develop Micro LEDs for watches. Supply chain sources revealed that Samsung Display strategically considered the layout of large-size Micro LED and silicon-based Micro LED, launched large-size Micro LED, and planned to develop 6600PPI Micro LED micro-display, but snubbed the watch with Micro LED, and did not make a corresponding production plan, because the watch Micro LED panel project is too small and the profit is not high.
Other panel manufacturers have not followed up to lay out the Micro LED rear assembly line for watches. Li Feifei, director of operations of DSCC China, revealed to Jiwei that AUO Optoelectronics has invested in a large-size Micro LED back-end production line, BOE Hefei has a Micro LED LTPS backplane production line and its medium and large-size application production line, Apple can assemble Micro LED as long as LED chips and huge transfer manufacturers cooperate.
Apple may delay the introduction of Micro LEDs
Is it possible for Apple to launch a Micro LED version of the Apple Watch Ultra in 2024?
Sources pointed out that Apple's goal of switching high-end smart watches to Micro LED technology Apple's self-developed panels in 2024 may also be postponed to 2025, and the transition period may also be carried out in the form of limited supply of new products.
Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg Apple columnist, believes that after the launch of Apple Watch Ultra with Micro LED at the end of 2024, Micro LED will also be introduced into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines in the future. Mark Gurman expects that Apple's self-developed Micro LED panels will be extended to iPhones, then to iPads and Macs, but due to technical complexity, it may take ten years to import Mac products.
Supply chain source Zhou Wen (pseudonym) told Jiwei that Apple generally prefers mature technology, whether it is LCD or OLED, which has been verified by products and markets for a long time, and has been recognized by users, before Apple introduced it into products on a large scale. Micro LED technology for watches is not very mature at present, the initial cost is high, whether Apple will rush to introduce Micro LED in 2024 remains to be seen by the market.
Li Feifei pointed out that the recent rumors about Apple Micro LED are chasing the wind, and most of them are not true. Micro LED is more likely to be widely used in wearable products and VR/AR fields, it is expected that wearable brands will introduce Micro LED in the second half of 2025, and Micro LED shipments in the wearable application market are expected to exceed 10 million pieces in 2027.
Micro LED has become a new hot spot in the stock market
Recently, why are the rumors of Apple Micro LED constant?
Apple has always been the pillar of the smartphone market, no matter how other mobile phone manufacturers' shipments decline, Apple shipments have stood tall, becoming a banner of counter-market growth, and it is also the "stock king" of US stocks sought after by many investors.
However, since the fourth quarter of last year, the industry has generally been pessimistic about the smartphone market this year. Murata warned that mobile phone sales this year will also continue last year's decline, and expects Apple to further cut production plans for the iPhone 14 series in the coming months due to weak demand.
The pessimistic forecast of Apple's supply chain and the Foxconn Zhengzhou Apple foundry incident have made investors gradually lose confidence in Apple. It is understood that in December last year, Apple's stock price fell 12%, the worst month since May 2019.
At the beginning of this year, the news of cutting orders in Apple's supply chain caused Apple's stock price to fall by nearly 4%, and its market value fell below the $2 trillion mark. This is the first time in 18 months that Apple's total market value has fallen below the $2 trillion mark, and fruit chain stocks have also declined.
If investors are to regain confidence in Apple and fruit chain stocks, they need to use new concepts or create new investment hotspots. Micro LED has the advantages of low power consumption, high brightness, high color saturation, high contrast, wide viewing angle, long life, self-illumination, high energy efficiency, seamless splicing, etc., is the third generation of display technology, plus Apple may introduce it into Apple Watch in the next year or two, becoming a new hot spot in the stock market speculation, which may make Apple Micro LED supply chain stocks a hot spot for recent investment. However, Apple Watch's demand for Micro LED is not large in size or area, and its role in driving the supply chain is far less than that of the iPhone.