Apple & GTAT open second sapphire manufacturing facility in Massachusetts
Apple's much-ballyhooed sapphire plant in Arizona is not its only production facility for the crystalline material, according to a new regulatory filing from manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies, as the two companies have also opened a secondary location in Salem, Mass.
The Salem location as seen from Google Street View
GTAT used a portion of Apple's $578 million prepayment to retrofit its Massachusetts facility -- previously a research and development laboratory -- with new furnaces to match those in Arizona, according to an amended version of the company's quarterly report. The amendment was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week and first noticed by analyst Matt Margolis.
The 50,000-square-foot Salem plant is significantly smaller than its Arizona cousin, which measures some 1.3 million square feet. It is unclear if Apple is depending on the Salem facility -- which appears to have begun growing sapphire in December -- for production, or if the company is simply using it as a testbed.
Apple has already been rumored to be exploring an expansion of the Arizona location, which could potentially see it double in size. That could mean the installation of as many as 5,000 furnaces at the site, easily making it the largest manufactured sapphire plant in the world.
Speculation has run rife with regard to Apple's plans for the enormous quantities of sapphire its plants are capable of producing, with many focusing on its potential uses in the cover glass of future iPhones or the so-called "iWatch."
The investment is likely to have a less exciting purpose, however. Apple is widely expected to bring its sapphire-covered Touch ID sensor to the iPad later this year, and the material is also used as scratch-resistant lens covers for the rear-facing cameras in iPhones. Together, those product lines sell nearly 250 million devices each year and continue to grow.
The Salem location as seen from Google Street View
GTAT used a portion of Apple's $578 million prepayment to retrofit its Massachusetts facility -- previously a research and development laboratory -- with new furnaces to match those in Arizona, according to an amended version of the company's quarterly report. The amendment was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week and first noticed by analyst Matt Margolis.
The 50,000-square-foot Salem plant is significantly smaller than its Arizona cousin, which measures some 1.3 million square feet. It is unclear if Apple is depending on the Salem facility -- which appears to have begun growing sapphire in December -- for production, or if the company is simply using it as a testbed.
Apple has already been rumored to be exploring an expansion of the Arizona location, which could potentially see it double in size. That could mean the installation of as many as 5,000 furnaces at the site, easily making it the largest manufactured sapphire plant in the world.
Speculation has run rife with regard to Apple's plans for the enormous quantities of sapphire its plants are capable of producing, with many focusing on its potential uses in the cover glass of future iPhones or the so-called "iWatch."
The investment is likely to have a less exciting purpose, however. Apple is widely expected to bring its sapphire-covered Touch ID sensor to the iPad later this year, and the material is also used as scratch-resistant lens covers for the rear-facing cameras in iPhones. Together, those product lines sell nearly 250 million devices each year and continue to grow.
Comments
News... or matter of fact. Given Apple's Growth rates, if it needs X sapphire production day 0, day 365 it will need 1.50X (Apple's growth is that much YoY for flagship phones and iPads). We should be seeing LOTS of sapphire plants opening up all over the world with 50% YoY growth.
It would be better if they didn't think longterm. It would be better if they held impromptu events to show us ideas they just thought of or create CGI-based videos of what the technology might eventually be like¡
This is most likely a factory for making prototypes. Just based on the size (compared to the Arizona facility) is would appear to be too small as a mass production factory.
It is notable that the Salem location is just about an hour's drive from the GTAT company headquarters in New Hampshire, providing easy access for the engineering team.
It would be better if they didn't think longterm. It would be better if they held impromptu events to show us ideas they just thought of or create CGI-based videos of what the technology might eventually be like¡
That gives competitors more insight into what direction Apple is headed. That is not to Apple's advantage although it might give some tech forum readers something to drool over.
Fortunately for shareholders, Apple doesn't care about tech forum readers.
Note that the WWDC previews are different, in that Apple needs third-party developers to create functionality. Apple thinks like a software and services company, even though the bulk of their profits result from hardware sales. It's just that their software and services run best on the company's proprietary hardware, but the developer focus is always on software.
I think you missed the sarcasm.
No, I did not.
Again, this is an ongoing problem with this site and others. There are plenty of readers who are non-native English speakers. Sarcasm should be noted with a /s tag or smilies should be used. That's what they're for.
Note that sarcasm is not as extensively used in many other cultures as it is in America, and regardless, those without the benefit of being native English speakers are at a disadvantage.
This issue is compounded by a completely separate matter: there are a certain number of naive and or insane people here on the forum. Often completely absurd statements are made by people who believe they are speaking the truth (or at least their opinion).
Lacking any indication of sarcasm (via tags, smilies), it is actually an amusing practice to take everything at face value in anonymous Q&A forums like AppleInsider.
He used the upside down exclamation point which is a generally accepted indication by English speakers since we don't normally use that mark.
It is also what the ¡ tag is used for at the end of a sentence. Much less universal... goes back to the comment about insane people I guess...
It's interesting that a critical component of many of their products is being manufactured in the US. Makes me think their long-term plan is to bring much of manufacturing back to the states, or at least a portion of it for the US market. Alternatively, this could just be a move to keep IP in the states, and not have it raided by China, absorbing the costs of shipping sapphire.
Also, this small facility might just be a testbed for R&D on the manufacturing process, not a full production facility or even an R&D facility for new materials. Apple is becoming quite good at manufacturing as they continue to build their vertical ecosystem.
Right, and liquid metal. Apple's investment in it seems disproportionately large for using it only for those SIM card ejector tools. I mean, they could ship a paper clip as an ejector tool! Someday, we'll find out.
Apple has been very consistent about secrecy, despite leaks. It's one of the reasons the company has such a vibrant "rumor community" online.
1) My apologizes. I thought I added sufficient hyperbole to my comment to make it clear that I was being ironic.
2) Even among native English speakers irony can be lost within this medium due to the many inline conventions and short comments which is why we really do need a standard sarcmark. Two or more characters ranging from /s to /sarcasm to [sarcasm]blah blah[/sarcasm] is simply too verbose. Image if we used /q, /p, or /e to refer to questions, periods, and exclamation points.
edit: It removed my lt/gt brackets used in HTML so I changed to standard brackets.
Sapphire can be used in so many other applications apart from consumer tech products or just for Apple's use. There are plenty of sapphire in the medical field which Apple seems to be getting into. Hospitals may no longer bother with those standard steel blade or tungsten carbide scalpels and use sapphire ones instead if the prices come down enough. Sapphire blade scalpels can hold a sharper edge longer. I'm thinking that sapphire could be used in artificial joints if alloyed with something like Liquidmetal. It just seems as though Apple could really make some serious money from various sapphire uses.
I guess it's all those taxes Mass collects that has attracted Apple to it.
Stuff like this is why Apple has no equal. Take a look at Swift ... five years in the making. Meanwhile, the Apple imitators/competitors are forced to come out with their products within months of what Apple put years into, which is of course why they are always inferior. It takes them years merely to catch up to a first gen Apple device, and by then Apple is even further ahead. So I guess you can say that the latest high end Android phones are as capable as early iPhones, but look at where the latest iPhones are now ... we are still waiting for the first 64 bit Android smartphone. There is FINALLY a 64 bit Android tablet, made by Acer, but big deal: Android has not been optimized for 64 bit operation yet. Rumor has it that the Nexus 8 will have a 64 bit processor and that Android 4.5 has been tuned for 64 bit, but they are still 2 years away from getting Android hardware and software to where Apple I-Phones and tablets were 2 years ago. And there aren't Android apps capable of doing 64 bit hardware and OS justice anyway.
Nothing wrong with having an Android phone or tablet if it is your preference or all that you can afford, but seriously, Apple is the best.