Sony allegedly turns down Apple's request for more Vision Pro displays

Apple made a big splash with its Vision Pro AR/VR headset announcement during the first day of WWDC. It is truly a marvelous piece of technology, and it comes with a price tag to match. That $3,500 price is mostly the reason why analysts do not predict a lot of sales for the company's first generation of the Apple Vision Pro.

One of the pricier components making up Apple's first mixed reality headset are the 4K Micro-OLED displays that users are constantly looking at while wearing it. These impressive tiny displays are manufactured by none other than Sony, which is a household name when it comes to image quality.

The latest report, which comes from The Elec, says that — despite the expected limited supply of Vision Pro units — Apple has asked Sony to increase the total production capacity for the OLED displays. However, Sony allegedly denied that request.

The trouble is that these displays are what's called OLEDoS, or OLED On Silicon, and Sony is currently one of the very few companies making them. The other one is SeeYa, a company based in China, which is a somewhat risky option for Apple, so it is unlikely the company would turn to it.

That means Apple is in a bit of a pickle if it plans to increase the number of manufactured units for the release of the Apple Vision Pro in 2024. As it currently stands, the Elec says Sony can produce a maximum of 100,000 to 200,000 units.

The only other viable option that's left for Apple is to turn to Samsung Display, but that would also include its own set of implications as Samsung makes OLEDoS displays using red, green, and blue OLED, while Sony's approach is to use white OLED and apply a color filter to it. In other words, if Apple wants to change suppliers, it would have to change the hardware of Apple Vision Pro.