“Apple has purchased a factory ($100 million) and partnered with GT Advanced ($587 million) to produce sapphire crystal. That’s a big investment in a big facility, which has led to big speculation, though at least one obvious application isn’t being considered,” FairerPlatform reports. “Without Gorilla Glass, the smartphone revolution would have been a lot less revolutionary and you can give Apple a lot of the credit for that — Gorilla Glass maker Corning had shelved the technology until Apple came calling.”
FairerPlatform reports, “However, at least for the time being, Apple’s new Arizona sapphire crystal manufacturing plant isn’t a threat to Gorilla Glass. Or, that’s how Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White sees things: ‘We do not expect sapphire to replace Corning’s Gorilla Glass on the iPhone or iPad in the coming quarters; however, we believe sapphire could gain traction in new small form factor applications or high-end devices with Apple in the future.'”
“Sapphire is great for smartphone and tablet camera lens covers, as well as a protective cover for the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S,” FairerPlatform reports. “Additionally, some high-end wristwatches also use sapphire crystal.”
Read more in the full article here.
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