” If the iPhone 6 doesn’t ship with a sapphire glass display, it won’t be because of a materials shortage; it’ll be because Apple chose to stick with the same glass it’s been using on previous iPhone models,” Jeff Gamet reports for The Mac Observer. “Apple teamed with GT Advanced Technology to produce the synthetic sapphire it needs — and not only has the company been ramping up production in a serious way, it also has a hoard of sapphire it already made stashed away.”
“GTAT has been racking up a lot of deferred revenue over the past several quarters with about $154 million that looks to be unaccounted for unless it’s sapphire the company has been sitting on. In other words, GTAT has been hoarding sapphire for about two years to make sure there’s enough to meet Apple’s needs,” Gamet reports. “Forbes reports PTT Research analyst Matt Margolis saying, ‘What this means is GT is already sitting on enough sapphire to satisfy Apple’s needs for the iPhone 6 launch in September. This deal was in the making for 2 years. They’ve been preparing this for quite some time.'”
Gamet reports, “With the stashed inventory, plus its current production, GTAT should be able to meet Apple’s needs.”
Read more in the full article here.
Who cares what the screen is made of? It doesn’t matter. Not having sapphire will prevent any of you from getting a new phone. The material advantages of sapphire in this application are yet to be proved.
I care. It makes it awesomer. How cool is it to say my phone is made out of sapphire crystal? It adds to the prestige, the exclusivity that comes with owning an iPhone.
Yeah that could be because the product with it hasn’t been shipped yet. I bet your great grandfather stood up and said the exact same thing about the car a month before it was first launched. The Wright brothers thankfully had him ejected from the field or we would all be heading for our hols in the Bahamas in our hot air balloons.
I care. My wife had an iPhone 5S and iPad 3 which needed screens replaced due to dropping them, and my iPad 2 now has a cracked screen because I dropped it. Yes, we should all be more careful, but accidents happen sometimes and it would be nice if the screens were made of stronger materials to better prevent breakage.
Just like how we like our iPhones/iPads to have metal cases which hold up better than the plastic of Samsung phones.
So you bought the iPhone even though it didn’t have a sapphire screen. You just validated terrym10’s point.
Once the average iOS user is locked into the ecosystem, they will accept WHATEVER screen that Apple gives them.
– what percentage of people can identify the glass on their iphones today?
– what percentage of people can quanitfy the relative strength, impact resistance, or hardness of the glass of different phones on the market today?
– sapphire is about 10x more expensive than Gorilla Glass. what percentage of people would pay the premium if Apple gave us the choice, all other things being equal?
We trust Apple to make good design decisions, but sometimes Apple makes bad calls. Like the ugly GUI of iOS7…
They qualify it when dropped and it doesn’t break
Whatever you say, rob.
Have current iPhone users never broken their screens? Did the one or two iPhone users who may have allegedly broken their screens completely abandoned Apple? Do you drop phones in the store before you buy?
Sapphire is only more expensive when Apple have to buy it.
Not when they make it.
Don’t pull numbers out of your ass, “Macuser.” Some of your points are reasonable, but you failed on the 10x one. At the scale that Apple/GT Tech is producing sapphire, they will probably only be 3x to 4x the cost of Gorilla Glass – instead of $3 apiece they might be $9 to $12 for the prestige and scratch resistance of sapphire. I would pay an extra $6 to $9. So would most other people.
Then you slid into the iOS7 gripe…fail. That complaint, along with the style of your post, makes me think that you are actually that *other* anonymous griper on this forum, but posting under another anonymous handle.
Man, what a tough crowd. During all the rumors about sapphire, I did my own research on it and as of last year, Macuser is right — Sapphire really is ~10x more expensive. But that was last year, and next year could be different.
http://www.phonecruncher.com/features/2345398/sapphire_vs_gorilla_glass_which_touchscreen_display_wins_on_scratch_resistance_shatterproofing_price_and_weight.html
perhaps it is you who should back up your assertions with facts instead of being an ass in public forums.
Ok, so ten times $3 is $30. But that is on the open market. Apple has been, in effect, making its own sapphire screens. Expect some significant discount off the $30, or Apple wouldn’t be doing it. Let’s say it’s $20 per display. Would you pay an extra $17 on a $600 iPhone for a sapphire screen? And let’s consider further that most people buy phones on contract and pay for them over time, one way or another. What’s $17 divided over a 24 month contract?
Maybe you should read the articles before you cite them. The article you cite says 3 to 4 times more expensive and goes on to describe the advantages of sapphire and debunk most of the rumors about sapphire not being practical in this application.
Still holding our breath. Don’t rush and hurt yourself.
When Apple is at their quietest, that’s when competitors have to worry the most.
Bang, bang. Apple’s silver hammer comes down upon their heads.
Thankfully, there are still a few things Apple can keep quiet in this era of constant proprietary data leaks out of unethical Asia.
there are a bunch of apple records lyrics that could be applied to apple inc.
Think of others?
when it comes to the “reporting” coming out of asia it seems that “do you want to know a secret?” might be applicable.
GT Advanced’s stockpile of ready sapphire glass was established and well known several months ago. The only reason this is in the news again is because of certain willfully ignorant analcysts who insisted upon spilling their ignorance in public in order to make a quick buck off sucker clicks. I prefer REAL analysts please.
In four weeks, we’ll know what iPhone does and does not have!
The rumors about the iPhone’s possible sapphire display tend to continually flip-flop. Like the man says, wait four more weeks and we’ll know for sure. Either way, only a few consumers will actually care. Even if the display is made of sapphire it probably won’t be considered as smartphone innovation.
Sapphire won’t seem like a smartphone innovation because many competitors and media types will try to convince the world that either the substance is a marketing gimmick or that it can easily be shattered by shooting a compound bow at it from close range.
But, I have faith that a large multitude will see through the BS attacks, just like they did with the Touch ID security and 64-bit chip. Let the half-wits go with Android.
A fair point … although I can also see that there’s probably been a secret Apple back laboratory project:
“What’s required to make an iPhone survive “Will It Blend?”.
Frankly, I don’t know if a saphire screen is enough to make it non-blendable … but you can also look at this from the perspective of how much viral marketing they would get by beating that meme.
-hh
The iPhone came out in 2007 and the iPad in 2010
The iPad was developed before the iPhone .
This gives one some indication of the timescale between development and release to market .
Apple does not live from quarter to quarter or even year to year-that is part of the magic
Are there any rumors about what Samsung displays will be made of? Does anyone care?
it will be made of whatever Apple says it will be made of… Samsung has to wait just like the rest of us