“US-based crystal growth solution and equipment provider GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has announced that Apple will pre-pay US$578 million to secure sapphire supply,” Jessie Lin reports for DigiTimes Research.
“GTAT will be able to use the funds to set up additional sapphire production capacity which will produce enough sapphire to make 5-inch screen covers for 33.79-50.56 million iPhones a year, Digitimes Research estimated,” Lin reports.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sapphire is for Touch ID, camera covers and, quite possibly, iWatch first, not likely for “5-inch screen covers” for iPhones, yet.
Related articles:
Apple’s iPhone 6 could feature unmatched sapphire glass display – November 7, 2013
Why Apple’s new sapphire manufacturing agreement is a big deal – November 7, 2013
GT Advanced Technologies spikes on sapphire deal with Apple – November 5, 2013
Apple expands ‘Made in USA’ efforts with sapphire glass factory in Arizona, creating over 2,000 jobs – November 4, 2013
Apple strikes sapphire supply deal with GT Advanced – November 4, 2013
Gorilla glass maker Corning enters into strategic partnership with Samsung Display – October 23, 2013
Sapphire glass may be used in 2014 iPhone Retina display, sources say – September 18, 2013
Vertu COO: Apple investigated sapphire crystal displays, but found them infeasible at this time – June 13, 2013
Corning’s Gorilla Glass vs. sapphire for mobile touch displays – May 28, 2013
Apple’s next iPhone screen could be made of Sapphire – May 2, 2013
Steve Jobs, steel balls and Corning’s Gorilla Glass (with video) – January 11, 2013
DigiTimes again, disregard.
All we know is that Apple will be using this for some device. The company demonstrated that the glass can be made to an iPhone size.
The question is whether the glass will provide all the other required features (compatible with touch screen and display tech), provide greater shatter protection and be cost effective.
GT sounds small enough that Apple could buy it and prevent other companies from using the same tech.
Sapphire glass is is weaker than gorilla glass 3 of an equivalent thickness when tested with the ring on ring test.
http://www.corninggorillaglass.com/gorilla-channel/Corning%C2%AE-Gorilla%C2%AE-Glass-vs.-Sapphire
A corning marketing video?
Really…. really???.
Hopefully your post is satire and you just forgot the /s
In the video, they didn’t show the damage caused by the “everyday times” after the 45 minutes in the tumbler. But then they proceeded to do a pressure test that would be *unlikely* in the real world.
Star sapphires take a week to crystallize properly. Would diamonds or emeralds do?
You are correct, Robby.
So I’d like to change my order to whiskey. 60 gallons should be sufficient.
“5-inch screen covers for 33.79-50.56 million iPhones a year”
So in other words, this won’t be for the iPhone screen, because it’s not nearly enough capacity.
My thoughts exactly. If they can produce this volume per quarter you could make an argument for phone screens. However the area of 30 million 5″ screens seems like it would be enough for Touch ID on every iOS device and camera lens and have capacity remaining for watch screens.