“As Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth revealed the latest news about Ubuntu’s mobile plans on Wednesday, he also dropped an interesting aside remark about Apple,” David Meyer reports for Gigaom. “‘Apple just snapped up the entire 3-year supply of the same sapphire display we wanted for the Edge,’ Shuttleworth said at This is a reference to the Ubuntu Edge, a flagship handset for the mobile device that broke crowdfunding records but ultimately failed to meet its target, so it never got made.”
“What’s interesting is that the Edge was to have a 4.5-inch display,” Meyer reports. “The current iPhone 5s has a 4-inch display that is more elongated than the more traditional proportions of what would have been the Edge’s screen.”
Meyer reports, “To confuse matters further, rumors are currently floating around of Apple buying sapphire displays but at a size of 5.6 inches, for a phablet-style device that won’t use the iPhone branding.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
What should Apple do with all that money it is sitting on? Oh, I don’t know, maybe lock the copiers from true innovation. Take that puck followers.
Sounds like Ubuntu was edged out by Apple. 😉
They could’a been a contender!
I don’t think you can read into the screen size based on what the Edge was supposed to be. I would assume that Apple have bought the capacity of manufacturing screens and they’ll make them at the size they want. It’s not as if there’s loads of factories making these things but only at specific and different sizes and Apple has selected one size and not another.
Whilst being realistic within the boundaries of what can physically and economically be manufactured Apple will do what they want.
I wonder what a three-year supply of sapphire displays for Canonical converts to in Apple years.
bout the same as
our years walking : years photons traveling
iPad Nano
“a phablet-style device that won’t use the iPhone branding.”
The all-new Apple iPhab.
There’s no fucking way that fucking Canonical will be able to afford a sapphire display for their fucking shit phones. Fuck off with the lies you fucking fucker.
I see you really like the f-word. Here’s a suggestion, learn a new word a day and by the end of a year your vocabulary will expand to 366 words!
Today’s word: Tourette’s
tomorrows word: touche !-)
Such eloquence, expounded in a concise, succinct fashion.
Mark my words, this boy will go far.
Eventually someone will figure out how to make “generic” displays that can be cut to size and a raster “mapped” onto them with code. Perhaps “printed” screens?
What Apple biught up is production capacity for this Saphire glass, not a specific display size or part.
Next, he’ll be screaming his lungs off Apple’s OSX copied Ubuntu…
One word. Awesome.
Just like Apple
Wasn’t there a story posted recently claiming sapphire glass will be for iWatch and this is for 3 years worth of 4.5″ displays?…
That’s some big watch you have there, Apple!
let’s see….a larger screen that’s not an iPhone –
two wild guesses (channeling my inner analyst):
1. automotive instrumentation of some type that can detach and be used as remote / phablet. it could contain all your owners’ manuals / service history. Perhaps ties into work Apple is doing with auto manufacturers. why did they meet with Tesla? Tesla currently has a giant touch screen as its center stack.
2. Apple TV / home automation remote
Maybe the 5.6 inch size is for the “Apple TV” remote control?