Apple has reportedly withdrawn some of its staff working at a micro-LED lab in Taiwan

Recent reports have claimed that Apple has withdrawn some of its technological staff working at a micro-LED research and development lab in northern Taiwan after LuxVue encountered bottlenecks in commercialization of this promising power-sipping display technology.

It is uncertain whether Apple will move forward with micro-LEDs, according to DigiTimes, due to many uncertainties and technological challenges in this market segment.

Apple has obtained patented technology for mass transfer of small micro-LED chips through acquiring US-based LuxVue Technology in May 2014. LuxVue was stealthily working on low-power Micro-LED screens and announced a technical breakthrough that some think involves unique electrostatic adhesion for mass transfer of these tiny chips, which is currently challenging due to high cost and poor yield rates.

Micro-LED panels promise low power consumption, high resolution, quick response and high luminance. As we previously explained, micro-LED panels consume 90 percent less power than LCD and half the power of OLEDs.

Apple was supposed to start building micro-LEDs by the end of this year, with earlier rumors claiming Apple Watch Series 3 would switch from OLED to micro-LED panels.

However, Series 3 uses OLED technology like all prior watch models.