According to a new report out of Korea, LG is seeking compensation from Apple for the Cupertino company’s canceling of its order for microLED panels for the Apple Watch Ultra. The microLED Apple Watch Ultra was rumored for a couple of years before it was reported, back in March, that Apple dropped its order for microLED panels.
That order was apparently made from Osram, but now it looks like LG was also involved, and the Korean company isn’t letting this slide – it wants Apple to pay for the “suspension” of the Apple Watch microLED project.
LG was preparing to carry out the “microLED backplane process at Apple’s unofficial request”, the report claims. But then, as we already knew, Apple “effectively canceled the project to develop a microLED Apple Watch”.
LG invested “tens of billions” of Korean won into the project, and for reference, one billion won is equivalent to about $730,000. So high tens of billions of won would be a maximum of about $65 million.
LG apparently moved some equipment around, secured space for the microLED backplane process in one of its plants, recruited manpower, and formed a task force. Several of LG’s suppliers also prepared to deliver equipment around that time too. As a consequence of Apple’s cancellation of the project, LG disbanded its task force, and incurred sunk costs for securing space and staffing for the microLED backplane process.
Interestingly, Korean industry analysts speculate that if Apple were to compensate LG for all this, then it would most likely pay the Korean company a little bit more for the OLED panels it’s buying from it for iPhones and iPads. This is because Apple has never publicly announced that it would develop a microLED Apple Watch, nor that it’s subsequently canceled the project.
Source (in Korean)