O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: headsets

  • Foxconn confirms microLED development work, mass production of displays to begin in 2025/2026

    Foxconn confirms microLED development work, mass production of displays to begin in 2025/2026

    Although Apple has yet to complete its transition from LCD to OLED displays, it seems that the next logical step for the company is for microLED screens.

    Key supplier Foxconn recent announced that it expects to begin mass production of the technology in late 2025. The announcement also confirmed Foxconn’s relationship with Porotech for microLED to be used in future augmented reality headsets.

    The transition to microLED would afford Apple even brighter displays with greater color accuracy, longevity, and power efficiency, and without the burn-in weakness of OLED. The company was expected to begin this move with a microLED Apple Watch, but later cancelled (or, likely, postponed) this plan as the tech wasn’t sufficiently advanced.

    Per Foxconn’s announcement:

    “Leveraging Porotech’s cutting-edge gallium nitride (GaN) technology and Foxconn’s vertically integrated services, from MicroLED wafer processing to packaging and optical modules, the collaboration aims to meet the demands for micro-display chips and AR glasses production. Together, they will provide high-performance, high-brightness, compact, and lightweight AR display solutions to advance global AR and micro-display technology development […]”

    It’s been noted that Foxconn plans to establish a microLED wafer processing production line in Taichung, with mass production slated to begin in Q4 2025. This, in turn, would indicate that the first products incorporating the tech launching in Q1 2026.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via 9to5Mac

  • Rumor: Apple Store retail locations to begin reducing Vision Pro retail/demo space

    Rumor: Apple Store retail locations to begin reducing Vision Pro retail/demo space

    Apple may be reducing/consolidating the amount of space it dedicates to the Vision Pro headset in some of its retail store locations.

    According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, while most stores have two tables dedicated to the ‌Apple Vision Pro‌, one for display units and one for customer demos, Apple is planning to move both the demo and display sections to a single table, using the extra space to display the new M4 Mac models.

    Gurman has states that Apple is piloting the new arrangements and that the layout change may only occur in some Apple Store locations at this time.

    The company’s plan to dedicate less retail space to the wearable headset comes only two weeks after The Information reported that Apple had reduced Vision Pro production and could stop making the device entirely by the end of 2024. Some factories cut production of Vision Pro components as early as May based on poor sales forecasts.

    It’s currently estimated that Apple will sell fewer than 500,000 Vision Pro headsets this year, even as the device rollout has expanded to additional countries. Apple suppliers have already produced enough components to manufacture between 500,000 and 600,000 headsets, so Apple does not need additional supply.

    Per noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will expand on its Vision Pro offerings in 2025, introducing a new headset with a faster M5 chip. Apple is also developing a more affordable version of Vision Pro, but there are mixed rumors as to when it might come out.

    In a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Vision Pro is “not a mass-market product” because of its high price, and is instead aimed at early adopters, or “people who want to have tomorrow’s technology today.”

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors, threads.net, and The Information

  • Apple patent indicates work on eye detection system to help detect screen burn-in

    A recently published Apple patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicates that Apple may be working on a feature to prevent display burn-in and help save your peepers.

    The feature seems to be geared towards augmented reality or mixed reality headsets, as noted here:

    Apple’s patent application relates to an eye monitoring system built into the frame support system of a headset designed to detect eye saccades and eye blinks and then make needed adjustments to the eye displays in realtime without the user even knowing this is occurring in the background. Saccades are fast, jerky and mostly ballistic eye rotations. Humans make several saccadic eye movements per second to utilize this highest-resolution part of the retina to look at the object of interest.

    As always, patents don’t necessarily show Apple’s direct product path, but hey help show what the company may be working on.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via The Mac Observer and Patently Apple