Corning Says Devices With Flexible 'Willow Glass' Displays Unlikely to Appear for at Least Three Years

phillipduran said:

Looking forward to heads up displays on glasses like where google is going with their glass product.

Imagine sports goggles with a map overlay showing your teammates location.

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Same here. It baffles me that this type of thing doesn't exist yet. It has so many applications its crazy. Military and law enforcement, pilots and drivers, sports. Thats not even touching the recreational consumer.

I am interested in the negative effects of wearing something like that as well. eye strain, etc.

Jetson said:

Then the Samsung, Google, and Microsoft copycats will pounce on the new market Apple creates and claim that THEY are the innovators and that Apple is a washed-up has been.

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Which new categories has Apple launched? The MP3 player category? The Mobile Phone category? The tablet computer category? They didn't create these categories they were late entrants. They did products in these categories that redefined or revolutionized the category, but they didn't create the category. And I don't think they will start now. The only argument in terms of creating a category was the Newton, which while brilliant was ahead of its time. I don't think Apple is interested in making a new "Newton." Whatever they do will be something that is a new spin on something someone else has already done poorly.

Why dont they just use plastic? seriously.

Lann said:

Why dont they just use plastic? seriously.

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Plastic tends to not age well. Have you seen headlights on an old car? The clouding effect would be bad for a consumer gadget.

Also what happens to your pixels when you flex the glass? I imagine this could really distort the display.

Then a whole lot of training has to go into the consumer market.

Customer: This is broken and I need it replaced...
Apple Genius: This isn't covered. You clearly bent it more than 90 degrees, we only cover bending less than that (more than that?).

How do you teach people not to bend a bendable product too much?

I guess this is a start. How soon will we start getting our wrist computers?

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SmileyBlast! said:

Plastic tends to not age well. Have you seen headlights on an old car? The clouding effect would be bad for a consumer gadget.

Also what happens to your pixels when you flex the glass? I imagine this could really distort the display.

Then a whole lot of training has to go into the consumer market.

Customer: This is broken and I need it replaced...
Apple Genius: This isn't covered. You clearly bent it more than 90 degrees, we only cover bending less than that (more than that?).

How do you teach people not to bend a bendable product too much?

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You don't, but lots of flexible products already exist, and if you 'bend' them too much they break. The manufacture doesn't replace products in those cases.

ChrisA said:

But. I'd buy a sheet of that glass today, just the glass. I think it would be perfect for picture frames. It could be thin so as not to show and if it bends it would not break when you ship it in a UPS box.

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Perfect? Why wouldn't it sag when used in big vertical sheets, given its properties?

Also I'd like to use it as a "finish" laminated to something else. Seems that glass would be durable, chemical resistant and if flexible would be crack if bent. Lots of uses for this stuff right now.

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Yowza! Corning needs to hire you immediately!

They conceived of it, engineered it, perfected it and marketed it. But somehow, they labor under some foolishly mistaken impression that the commercial use of their product is still a couple of years away.

But NO! The fact of the matter is that there exist "Lots of uses for this stuff right now."

Hold the presses! Please, please call Corning on the phone NOW. We, the people of this earth, need Corning to have in-house expertise on, well, you know, HOW TO USE GLASS! And you know more than any of them about it.

Please call corning NOW!

Looks like Vaporware.

bb426 said:

I've had mine since day one, without a case, and use it daily. No scratches. What the hell do you do to your phone?

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Sand easily scratches Gorilla Glass, so people in sandier environments (coastal, areas with sandy soil, etc) end up with the stuff on their hands and it gets in their pockets.

If Steve were still around...

If Steve Jobs were still around, he'd be pushing them to get it ready in 3 months like he did with Gorilla Glass.

SmileyBlast! said:

Plastic tends to not age well. Have you seen headlights on an old car? The clouding effect would be bad for a consumer gadget.

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The original 1st gen iPhone prototypes were plastic, and I remember eyewitness accounts saying they were already scratched to hell after Macworld.

dennno said:

Still waiting for completely scratch proof glass. My iPhone 5 has heaps of small scratches on the screen.

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How did you manage that? It's weird but my iphone 4 doesn't have a single scratch and I got it as soon as it came out and never had anything on it for protection. Dropped it plenty of times and it always travels with me. Perhaps the newer screens aren't as good?

Oh man.... I was so excited.... but maybe Apple has something else up their sleeves!

In other news .. Phones with Holographic displays that bring up tupac every time you play Hail Mary will arrive on late 2025 ..

madsci954 said:

Between a 3G, 3GS, a couple 4 and 4S's, I had only one scratch on any of my screens, and it was barely noticeable (you had to angle it in the right light to see it). Unless you're carrying your phone in the same pocket as your keys, or happen to have sand or uncut diamonds in your pocket, it shouldn't scratch.

To that end, the only way to have a 100% scratch-proof screen is if it were made of diamond.

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Every phone that I have used (Samsung, Blackberry, HTC, Apple) have had barely visible scratches on the screen even when isolated in my pocket. I always use a screen protectior now.

TimUSCA said:

How do you do this? I haven't seen scratches on my iPhone screen since the 3GS, and I'm not exactly careful all the time with it. I've seen videos of people ramming their keys into the iPhone 5 screen, and nothing.

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I can vouch for the scratches despite carrying the phone separately in my pockets. They are not deep scratches but very fine lines here and there that are barely visible unless held at an angle to the light source. Made me get a screen protector.

aerok said:

Every phone that I have used (Samsung, Blackberry, HTC, Apple) have had barely visible scratches on the screen even when isolated in my pocket. I always use a screen protectior now.

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Hrrmmmm... So instead of having all-but-invisible micro scratches, you now have a blurry film over the screen.

To each his own. I never use the things.

dennno said:

Still waiting for completely scratch proof glass. My iPhone 5 has heaps of small scratches on the screen.

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What are you doing with it? The 5 is the first phone in awhile that I didn't put one of those screen protector stickers on, and I still don't have scratches. The number one thing I'm careful to do is keep the keys in a separate pocket.

EDIT: Beaten.

Corning? wut's that? a division of apple?

I thought apple invented everything then other companies steal from them..

And I'm *still* waiting on my flying car I was promised back in the 70's.

Krazy Bill said:

And I'm *still* waiting on my flying car I was promised back in the 70's.

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I think we have flying car technology.
but nobody seems to really stop and think about what would really happen if you took a few hundred million humans and gave them all flying cars..
talk about a disaster

iGrip said:

Hrrmmmm... So instead of having all-but-invisible micro scratches, you now have a blurry film over the screen.

To each his own. I never use the things.

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Yeah because I always resell my used phones.

aerok said:

Yeah because I always resell my used phones.

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I have Zagg invisible shield film on my iPhone and I can't see it at all except for a bubble in the very corner. They are tricky to put on. Not blurry at all.

That's a bummer, to wait 3 years.

These "Willow Glass" rumors are the same thing as "Liquid Metal" about a year ago.

There is ALWAYS a delay between when something is ready for manufacture and when it hits the shelves...and it's usually a few years.

laurim said:

I have Zagg invisible shield film on my iPhone and I can't see it at all except for a bubble in the very corner. They are tricky to put on. Not blurry at all.

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Never really like the rubbery feel Zagg gave, always got frustrated by it lol