If you were to play a Family Feud-style game based on Apple Watch Ultra complaints, you’d be very brave to pick “not big enough” as your top guess. Yet, that seems to be Apple’s take-home as it plans its next wearable moves.
That’s according to 9to5Mac and Haitong Intl Tech Research analyst Jeff Pu, who reckons that the Apple Watch Ultra will jump from its chunky 1.93in display to an even chunkier 2.1in panel in 2024.
To be fair, given the timeframes and Apple’s past form, much of this could be achieved by shrinking bezels. And even if that’s not the case, the good news is this allows (slightly) more room for a larger battery — something that you might answer on the aforementioned hypothetical game of Family Feud.
Pu also claims that the new Apple Watch Ultra could feature Micro LED screen technology. It’s an alternative to the OLED tech that debuted on the Apple Watch, which offers better brightness and higher colour accuracy if done well — which you’d hope it would be on the pricey Apple Watch Ultra.
A brighter screen would definitely be welcome, given the Apple Watch Ultra is aimed at outdoorsy folks who tend to face direct sunlight more than us sedentary types who prefer the dim light of screens and lightbulbs. Plus, the big disadvantage of Micro LED tech — its high price relative to other screen tech — is less of an issue when the panel is small enough to fit on a wrist.
Away from smartwatches, the analyst also reckons that the Apple also has plans at appealing to its fans on tighter budgets with the introduction of AirPods Lite. These will presumably be designed to compete with the millions of cheap AirPod clones flooding the market.
Pu doesn’t say anything about what Apple would cut to reduce the price, or even how cheap they might be. But AirPods Lite would, at the very least, have to undercut the second-generation AirPods, which still sell on the official Apple site for NZ$249.
