Apple has invested more than 7 years in developing Vision Pro and they have finally unveiled it this year 2023 planning its launch for the first quarter of 2024. However, according to the Financial Times , Apple is forced to make significant cuts to its production plans for Vision Pro headphones, going from 1 million headphones to less than half.
What is the reason for this significant production cut?
Apple itself points to the poor synchronization with suppliers, specifically with the supplier of Micro OLED displays, as the main cause.
Who is the supplier of the micro OLED display for Vision Pro, and what factors have influenced the production cuts?
In this article we tell you everything we know.
Sony, supplier of Micro OLED displays for Apple's Vision Pro
Sony is the supplier of Micro OLED displays for Apple's Vision Pro, considered the most expensive component of the device. Therefore, any decision regarding it affects Apple's financial results.
Apple recently announced its dissatisfaction with supply chain players, specifically micro OLED display suppliers, and has therefore had to accept Sony's proposal as the best option.
Could Sony's pricing have influenced Apple's Vision Pro production cuts?
We don't know, and Apple has been careful not to omit opinions on the matter. But what we do know is that Sony has offered to supply micro-OLED displays with a resolution higher than 4K for each eye, which will be a very strong competitive advantage over other VR headsets .
Luxshare, the Chinese company that will assemble the Vision Pro, is probably one of the companies most affected by this decision. Some sources suggest a production run of 400,000 units, while others suggest no more than 150,000.
Why is a micro OLED display so expensive?
A Micro OLED display is a type of display that uses OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) technology on a very small scale. OLED displays generally consist of an organic layer of materials that emit light when an electrical current is applied.
This technology allows each pixel to emit its own light, resulting in high contrast, vibrant colors, and deep blacks, as black pixels are simply turned off.
The "micro" characteristic in the term "Micro OLED" refers to the size of the pixels and the display itself. These displays are extremely small and compact, making them ideal for applications where space is limited or where high resolution is required on a small screen.
Micro OLED displays find applications in a variety of fields, including wearable devices, virtual and augmented reality headsets, VR headsets, high-resolution cameras, health monitors, and more. This makes them indispensable for Vision Pro headsets.
Due to their ability to deliver sharp, bright images in very small sizes, Micro OLED displays are especially useful in devices where exceptional visual quality is desired in a small space.
This makes it a very expensive technology reserved only for high-end devices like Vision Pro.