“In a column I did recently about what I wanted in a new iPhone, I lamented about my iPhone breaking and said I wanted a sapphire screen on any new iPhone I might buy in the future. I formed that opinion because of all the hype surrounding Apple buying $578 million worth of sapphire in way of partnership with GT Advanced, a sapphire manufacturing company,” Tim Bajarin writes for TIME Magazine. “All of us assumed that this meant Apple would put sapphire screens in the new iPhones, but when it didn’t happen, I started digging into why this was not the case.”
“My sources tell me that sapphire was never targeted for the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus and its role in future iPhones hasn’t even been decided yet,” Bajarin writes. “I don’t doubt that over time, there could be some breakthroughs with sapphire and new coating processes that could make it possible to use on a smartphone. However, from the research I did, it does not appear that it could happen anytime soon.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
I wouldn’t have minded the “second hardest transparent material” to form the screen of my next iPhone. Sad that it didn’t and maybe couldn’t happen.
I will be buying an Apple Watch, however.
Maybe in the S models?
Yes…the iPhone 27S. It will also come with the ability to shave as well I predict.
No doubt it would be a laser shaver.
The iPhoneNo!No!
From what I have read about the sapphire vs gorilla glass is that gorilla glass is stronger in the way it handles being dropped – heavy impact, but is more likely to scratch from coins/key ect in your pocket. I’m wondering if the iPhone doesn’t have sapphire cause gorilla glass is a better option for Phone. Sapphire may only be useful for smaller screens ie watch
If Vertu has sapphire screens, you can bet they don’t crumble into pieces in people’s hands when dropped. Clearly Apple never intended to put sapphire on the 6/Plus. I’d say it’s also pretty clear that the 6S will have it. This fragility issue is not insurmountable.
Maybe not into people hands, but they did fail tests
-“reports claim the sapphire screens were set to be included on the new devices, but the plans had to be abandoned when they kept failing drop tests.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2756260/So-THAT-s-Apple-didn-t-use-sapphire-screens-Source-reveals-handsets-repeatedly-failed-drop-tests.html
You take stories in the Daily Mail as fact? Especially one about Apple. Come on man!
its a reword of VentureBeat and sapphires fragility is no secret
I wouldn’t believe the Mail if it said the sun will set tonight. Apple can be quite conservative at times rightly so when any error on their part is reported by the likes of the Mail as a most extreme blunder exaggerated out of all proportion e.g. antennagate. As and when it is perfected it will no doubt move into other products, it was vital in the watch in ways it isn’t in the phones as yet and no doubt the watch will act as a testbed along the way too even if most of that will have to happen in widespread testing and company use before the watch launch if the material is going to be used in the next phone edition.
You are right, and this Tim guy is ignorant. Sapphire is much harder, but more brittle, too. Apple would use laying of super thin sapphire crystal over glass to compensate for that.
But the main issue is that sapphire production levels as not ready. Maybe iPhone will have sapphire next year — at least pricier models.
“comparable devices are priced at or lower than the iPhone 6”
Comparable how? Strictly on size? Okay. Overall build quality? No way.
The answer is rather simple, this kind of material is needed for Iwatches …
Exactly correct.
A very good and informative article – well worth the read.
Yet another case of bloggers gone wild, setting ridiculous expectations. I was immediately skeptical, given the timing of when the rumors first surfaced. Think about it: the rumors boiled up only a couple of months ago. A product as complex as the iPhone has a supply chain involving logistical decisions likely made at least a year ago for what would be in the new products. GT Advanced, the supplier of sapphire glass, announced they were ramping to production status only a few weeks ago. There is simply not enough time to produce in volume sufficient to meet the demand for manufacturing millions of phones in that time.
I’m hardly a genius, but it should have been obvious. Yet, the rocket scientists in the tech media, pundits and Wall $treet analysts ran with the hype based on unproven rumors rather than common sense. This week, GT Advanced’s stock was crushed when analysts’ ridiculous expectations slammed into the concrete wall of reality. The company likely did nothing wrong, but was punished because analysts were too stupid to do their own investigation, and instead ran with the flights of fantasy of some 29 year old loser still living at home and blogging from the basement of his parent’s house.
Mind you, these analysts are handsomely paid to provide sure fire reports to their brokerage firms’ clients. Personally, they should be working at Starbucks instead. And that’s an insult to Starbucks.
May God have mercy on us all.
PS Go Angels!
I’m sure this research was incredibly in depth based on information from many learned sources. Funny how this research wasn’t done before the iPhone 6 launched and before writing a stupid opinion piece in the first place.
“Funny how this research wasn’t done before the iPhone 6 launched….”
It was obviously by Apple!
Great article:
I agree with everything you wrote and often thought about these things but went along with general thinking that oh well they must have solved these issues.
The exact thing is true with sensors in the watch, the glucose, BP and other rumored sensors in a watch are a technical impossibility. It will take years before watch devices will be able to accurately perform such measurements…but so many people drank the koolaid.
Lot of poor journalism out there these days……
“Lot of poor journalism out there these days……”
Unfortunately, we equate blogging under the same breathe with journalism. News with editorials/opinions. Analysis with facts. Reports with research. And rumours with verification.
I would hope that some day that every news story would be accompanied with actual references and not simply Googled search results. Until then, I will continue to contest everything that I can’t be verified.
Next iPhone will have it! iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S+ ! S stands for Sapphire.
This reminds me of a documentary I read exploring the ground layers along the San Andreas fault. South of Los Angeles in a deep granite layer there is a chalk substance that allows slippage. This was shown in the streets of a community south of LA where the sidewalks and fences had slowly distorted over time.
LA which doesn’t have that chalk material does not demonstrate this slippage, and the idea they presented there was that the forces build up until there is a major sheering affect. Of course that’s all about a sudden super earthquake happening vs. a number of slight adjustments over time.
All this stuff is very technical, and glass certainly has a lot of diversity in this respect. The use for sapphire glass will find it’s place, and with Apple it will be appropriate.
In fact, the iPhone 6 does use sapphire. Just not for the main screen…but for the camera lens cover, a small protected area not prone to direct hard impact.
And while the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition have a sapphire screen, the Apple Watch Sport has the ion-strengthened glass screen. So sapphire for scratch resistance and glass for fracture resistance.
I can’t wait for the rumor mill to stop promoting sapphire. It’s almost like the sapphire producers are hiring bloggers to push its use. Enough already!!!
PRICE is the reason no iPhone has ever had a sapphire screen and none will in the foreseeable future. It doesn’t take much research to find the difference in cost — it is enormous.
Given how stingy Apple is when it comes to spending on things like battery capacity — something that almost EVERYONE would like to see significantly improved — it is no surprise that Apple likewise isn’t spending a dime more on exotic screen materials that practically nobody would understand or appreciate.
The public seems very content in slapping transparent stickers and cheesy silicone cases on their phones in order to protect them. Apple would much rather sell you overpriced selections of those than eat the cost of procuring a magical unobtanium screen which will still be covered up by most users.
IN GENERAL, the harder the material, the more brittle it is. This is true of sapphire as well. While not insurmountable, it is a significant reason that large screens aren’t made of sapphire. Plus, since Ive has decided that the ideal thickness of an iPhone is approximately equal to that of a sheet of plain paper, there simply is no room for enhanced glass protection or battery. iPhone 6+ users, you’ll be better off, but iPhone 6 users, welcome to another couple years of carrying around your charger all the time.