14 DAY TRIAL // At a New York investor meeting on Friday, Corning executive James Clappin announced plans to introduce an advanced type of glass that can give sapphire a run for its money.
Corning recently unveiled the fourth-generation of Gorilla Glass, the company’s flagship product that most big players in the smartphone industry use to cover their LCD / OLED displays. Gorilla Glass 4 is tough, but Corning has something even tougher prepared.
The best of both worlds
Sapphire is super resistant to scratches, but it’s more brittle than traditional glass. If it incurs pressure beyond its flexing point, it shatters. By contrast, Gorilla Glass can take a lot of bending, but it scratches more easily. Those scratches cause weaknesses in the material, making it prone to cracking.
Corning believes it has finally solved this age-old dilemma with a new type of glass that’s both flexible and super scratch-resistant. Dubbed “Project Phire,” this new development will materialize sometime later this year, according to Clappin.
“We told you last year that sapphire was great for scratch performance but didn't fare well when dropped,” said the president of Corning Glass Technologies. “So, we created a product that offers the same superior damage resistance and drop performance of Gorilla Glass 4 with scratch resistance that approaches sapphire.”
Apple still wants tougher glass
After its failed partnership with GT Advanced, Apple saw it necessary to abandon plans for sapphire and move onto the next best thing, which happened to be ion-strengthened glass made by Corning.
However, the company is believed to have continued to pursue its dream of installing sapphire displays on future iPhones. Rumor has it that Apple is building a sapphire-cooking plant next door to Foxconn in Taiwan.
However, if Corning’s new announcement materializes in time for the iPhone 6S debut this fall, the Cupertino giant may have found an even better alternative to the costly - and apparently jinxed - sapphire display.