With pre-orders selling out in minutes and lines forming at its stores to buy the iPhone X, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is on a roll. So is AAPL stock, which has now surged well past its September highs. But not everything is going the company’s way. It looks as though it’s putting out another fire on the Apple Watch front, with reports of issues with the Apple Watch 3 display.
MacRumors got ahold of an internal memo that Apple distributed to its Genius Bars and to Apple Authorized Service Providers. It notes an issue that is beginning to show up on its latest Apple Watch. The Apple Watch 3 display may begin to show stripes along its edge over time. They are most noticeable when the smartwatch is powered off.
Apple Watch 3 Display With “Edge Stripes”
Problems with OLED displays have been in the news a lot recently, with Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Pixel 2 XL being widely criticized for issues, including poor color reproduction, blue tinting and screen burn in.
It seems as though the OLED Apple Watch 3 display is not suffering screen burn in, although “edge striping” sounds like something similar. Instead, the focus appears to be on moisture collecting under the display.
It’s Not the Cellular Version That’s Affected
Strong demand for the Apple Watch 3 after its September release led to predictions that this new cellular-capable smartwatch was on track to sell in numbers that would actually move the AAPL stock needle.
That outlook was tempered somewhat by connectivity issues with the LTE Apple Watch 3. Apple released a software fix to address that issue, then doubled down with a new watchOS release yesterday that adds features, including a control so users can manually disconnect from Wi-Fi networks.
Problem solved.
But on the same day, the watchOS update was released, news broke about the Apple Watch 3 display issue. And somewhat ironically, this problem appears to be specific to the non-LTE version of the new Apple Watch. Speculation is that the LTE models use a different display component with an integrated antenna and this design is free of the flaw that’s affecting the less expensive model.
What Is Apple Doing About It?
Unfortunately, the Apple Watch 3 display issue can’t be fixed by software update. So the company can’t address the problem the way it has tackled the connectivity issues with the LTE version of the smartwatch. That means repair, which is why the company is distributing the memo to its Genius Bars.
The Apple Watch is covered by Apple’s standard one-year warranty, so at this point, any repairs would be free. The bigger question would be whether the company will need to be fixing affected Apple Watches beyond the one-year window, and whether the issue is serious enough to warrant making an adjustment to the current Apple Watch 3 display design.
9to5Mac talked to Apple Store staff and was told that at this point, instead of repairing an affected Apple Watch 3 display, the company is replacing affected smartwatches altogether.
Should AAPL Investors be Worried?
It appears that the Apple Watch 3 display issue is relatively isolated and that it’s specific to the model that’s GPS-only. And despite the surge in Apple Watch sales, they are still a sideshow to the mighty iPhone when it comes to Apple revenue. So, while the current situation is worth keeping an eye on, there’s little chance another Apple Watch hiccup is going to rain on the iPhone X-powered record highs AAPL stock is hitting.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
