How about this: As I understand it, when an iphone screen gets scratched it is not necessarily the glass that scratches but the anti-smudge film that is on the screen that scratches. So from a different perspective, how does sapphire handle fingerprints and other things then normal glass? If due to the surface hardness of sapphire it does not hold on to grease and oil and other things that go from our hands to the screen and therefore is much more easily cleaned and you have the benefits of hardness without having to add that extra layer of smudge proof film, and that leads to a much more satisfied customer.
Dear Mikey Campbell. Just comment to your sentence:
"As Corning stands to lose a major source of revenue if Apple decides to switch away from Gorilla Glass in favor of its own sapphire-based solution, the company is understandably a detractor of the burgeoning tech. "???
You are wrong here. Corning yearly revenue is 8.000 Mio USD and Gorila from apple is only about 150 Mio. This is in your opinion a major source??? Corning has four independent revenue pillars and Gorila is just one small revenue stream for Corning. Corning does not need to be negative on Sapphire. In opposit. They even admited that Sapphire is nice sexy name :-)
Best
Assuming your numbers are accurate, that sounds like a major drop in revenue, especially when you consider it's from just one customer. Furthermore, the same chain of events that brought customers to GG because of Apple may now bring them to sapphire. How much more of their revenue, profits, R&D, investments, etc. are tied in GG? Losing Apple as a customer doesn't sound good for business.
Assuming your numbers are accurate, that sounds like a major drop in revenue, especially when you consider it's from just one customer. Furthermore, the same chain of events that brought customers to GG because of Apple may now bring them to sapphire. How much more of their revenue, profits, R&D, investments, etc. are tied in GG? Losing Apple as a customer doesn't sound good for business.
If they were smart they would have a plan for this scenario. If Corning doesn't have applications for GG on deck just waiting to be launched then its R&D dept didn't do their job.
Sapphire is brittle compared to glass, so it isn't 'stronger' and doesn't offer a way to make a screen thinner and lighter. Really hard substances tend to be brittle. Diamond may be extremely hard, but it is also brittle. The toughest mineral is jade (nephrite) so if you wanted to make a hammer, or a phone screen that would best resist breaking, you would use jade. Unfortunately nephrite isn't transparent.
I've read somewhere that NASA specifies Hardlex crystals for their Astronauts' Omega watches over Sapphire glass. Sapphire is harder to scratch, but Hardlex is less brittle. I don't know how Gorilla glass compares to Hardlex, but compared to Sapphire, it seems to be less scratch resistant and less brittle, not unlike Hardlex. It will be interesting to see how well Sapphire performs on phones. Unless, of course, Apple is not considering this for their smartwatch and some other unspecified products with small glass surface.
I've read somewhere that NASA specifies Hardlex crystals for their Astronauts' Omega watches over Sapphire glass. Sapphire is harder to scratch, but Hardlex is less brittle. I don't know how Gorilla glass compares to Hardlex, but compared to Sapphire, it seems to be less scratch resistant and less brittle, not unlike Hardlex. It will be interesting to see how well Sapphire performs on phones. Unless, of course, Apple is not considering this for their smartwatch and some other unspecified products with small glass surface.
Thats not the reason, Hardlex doesn't shatter like glass and so all these tiny fragments aren't going to be floating all over a spacecraft.
GT Advanced Technologies will be holding a briefing on March 14 where they will be discussing their new technology for creating thin laminate sapphire and solar cells, which according to what i read is made using an ion canon, which can "exfoliate" a layer as thin as 25 microns, and do so cost effectively. I strongly suspect they may talk about the relationship with Apple and will at least hint at what they will be producing for them this year. In their latest quarterly conference call they said that much of their revenues would be backloaded to the second half of 2014 due to the ramp up in production in sappire materials, with as much as 85% of revenues and profits in the second half. Much of that revenue, i think, will come from Apple.
There is also some speculation that Tesla might be involved in some way eventually, with thei expertise in ion lithium battery technology perhaps being used as potential power storage for the Mesa plant. Makes sense to me, considering the meetings Apple had with them last year.
I don't think GTAT will be making enough sapphire glass to meet Apple 's needs until 2015. Until then, perhaps we'll see the 5c (Corning) and the 5s (Sapphire) to further differentiate them, with the iPhone 6 being all sapphire.
Funny and true. Corning seem to be protesting too much. If they were confident, they wouldn't need to be so defensive. Maybe sapphire will turn out to be the gorilla in the room.
Those who live in Gorilla Glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
GT Advanced Technologies will be holding a briefing on March 14 where they will be discussing their new technology for creating thin laminate sapphire and solar cells, which according to what i read is made using an ion canon, which can "exfoliate" a layer as thin as 25 microns, and do so cost effectively. I strongly suspect they may talk about the relationship with Apple and will at least hint at what they will be producing for them this year. In their latest quarterly conference call they said that much of their revenues would be backloaded to the second half of 2014 due to the ramp up in production in sappire materials, with as much as 85% of revenues and profits in the second half. Much of that revenue, i think, will come from Apple.
There is also some speculation that Tesla might be involved in some way eventually, with thei expertise in ion lithium battery technology perhaps being used as potential power storage for the Mesa plant. Makes sense to me, considering the meetings Apple had with them last year.
I don't think GTAT will be making enough sapphire glass to meet Apple 's needs until 2015. Until then, perhaps we'll see the 5c (Corning) and the 5s (Sapphire) to further differentiate them, with the iPhone 6 being all sapphire.
Will be interesting to see if Apple buys up all of the excess capacity of the Tesla factory.
Unfortunately that test doesn't reveal anything about the disparate materials because the size and placement of the materials are very different, which includes sapphire in the 5S even having a flexible button and protective ring that would allow it to recede as pressure was being applied to the face.
Comments
Assuming your numbers are accurate, that sounds like a major drop in revenue, especially when you consider it's from just one customer. Furthermore, the same chain of events that brought customers to GG because of Apple may now bring them to sapphire. How much more of their revenue, profits, R&D, investments, etc. are tied in GG? Losing Apple as a customer doesn't sound good for business.
If they were smart they would have a plan for this scenario. If Corning doesn't have applications for GG on deck just waiting to be launched then its R&D dept didn't do their job.
Because... losing 20%, or even 10% of your customers overnight is still big loss? /s
I've read somewhere that NASA specifies Hardlex crystals for their Astronauts' Omega watches over Sapphire glass. Sapphire is harder to scratch, but Hardlex is less brittle. I don't know how Gorilla glass compares to Hardlex, but compared to Sapphire, it seems to be less scratch resistant and less brittle, not unlike Hardlex. It will be interesting to see how well Sapphire performs on phones. Unless, of course, Apple is not considering this for their smartwatch and some other unspecified products with small glass surface.
Testing iOS's autocorrect I get sapphire ok here on this forum.
I've read somewhere that NASA specifies Hardlex crystals for their Astronauts' Omega watches over Sapphire glass. Sapphire is harder to scratch, but Hardlex is less brittle. I don't know how Gorilla glass compares to Hardlex, but compared to Sapphire, it seems to be less scratch resistant and less brittle, not unlike Hardlex. It will be interesting to see how well Sapphire performs on phones. Unless, of course, Apple is not considering this for their smartwatch and some other unspecified products with small glass surface.
Thats not the reason, Hardlex doesn't shatter like glass and so all these tiny fragments aren't going to be floating all over a spacecraft.
There is also some speculation that Tesla might be involved in some way eventually, with thei expertise in ion lithium battery technology perhaps being used as potential power storage for the Mesa plant. Makes sense to me, considering the meetings Apple had with them last year.
I don't think GTAT will be making enough sapphire glass to meet Apple 's needs until 2015. Until then, perhaps we'll see the 5c (Corning) and the 5s (Sapphire) to further differentiate them, with the iPhone 6 being all sapphire.
Those who live in Gorilla Glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Will be interesting to see if Apple buys up all of the excess capacity of the Tesla factory.
What about a sapphire micro coating or nano coating?? Hmm
The GT Advanced sheets are only 20 micrometers so that's "micro"....
iPhone 5s run over by car, gorilla and sapphire.
Unfortunately that test doesn't reveal anything about the disparate materials because the size and placement of the materials are very different, which includes sapphire in the 5S even having a flexible button and protective ring that would allow it to recede as pressure was being applied to the face.
If your sapphire plant is solar powered, the amount of energy required isn't that much of an issue.
...and if your car is solar powered gasoline is not an issue - so what?