Apple Watch’s tiny sapphire screen costs $27 to produce

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Picture: Apple
Picture: Apple

Aside from the fact that it features a “flexible Retina display” and is capable of “reading” both soft and hard presses, Apple hasn’t let much out of the bag about the sapphire display for its eagerly-anticipated Apple Watch.

A new report from research firm NPD DisplaySearch has a bit more to say, however — including the price Apple is apparently paying for the sapphire laminate panels it’s using for its wearables debut.

Including the panel, sapphire, labor costs another charges, NPD DisplaySearch claims Apple’s new screens will set it back $27.41 per device for the larger Apple Watch. Of this, the display module is estimated to cost $7.86, while the touch panel covered with sapphire costs Cupertino $19.55 per unit.

NPD DisplaySearch also claims the Apple Watch’s sapphire touchscreen will boast a 1.5-inch display for the devices’s 42mm version, while the smaller 38mm Apple Watch will come with a 1.3-inch screen. Both displays supposedly feature the same 240×320 resolution.

In terms of pixel density this adds up to 299ppi on the smaller Apple Watch, and 261ppi for the bigger one.

The displays are reportedly flexible AMOLED (using a plastic substrate), with the panel being supplied by LG Electronics. The sapphire that sits on top of this is provided by GT Advanced, which was also already well known.

The Apple Watch is expected to go for sale in early 2015, with prices starting at $349. According to a new report also from NPD DisplaySearch, Apple’s much-heralded arrival in the wearables industry could see the wearables market hit 91 million units in 2015.

A recent report suggested that Apple was aiming to sell the (close to impossible) number of 50 million+ Apple Watches in 2015, which would not only make it the undisputed market leader, but also make the Apple Watch the top-selling iOS device in history on a first year sales basis.

Source: NPD DisplaySearch

Via: GforGames

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