If Apple is just hiring now for mid-Feb startup, there is no way we are getting a sapphire screen phone in June. Maybe an announcement with a late Sept/Oct delivery. And forget about solar charging this time around. They will be lucky to have enough plain screens for an Iphone 6.
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Apple Looking to Take Arizona Sapphire Plant Live in February for 'Critical' Component
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How long will the bean counters and investors allow this factory to remain here though? Arent they prpobably already forcing Apple to find some miserable, god-forsaken third world country to do this work?
you can use your brain driving too, just not very accurate. I think i'm going about 50 mph and think i need gas soon. hunger is inaccurate and doesn't tell you what kind of blood chemistry and what you need to eat, if you feel thirst you're already dehydrated. your brain doesn't tell you that you have cancer or are about to have a heart attack.
If I understand correctly sapphire scores nine on the Mohs scale, making it the second hardest material in the world after diamond.
They use it to make bullet proof glass.
It's also made from aluminium, third most abundant element in the universe. This makes it a pretty much perfect material for Apple to use when building future durable and environmentally friendly devices.
Wonder if they are then using the aluminum shavings as recycled from cutting their laptops etc. for this. Could provide peripheral cost savings across the line.
I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but the solar panel job listing makes me think solar farm more than solar powered iPhones. Making sapphire takes a lot of electricity...apple is making big efforts to use renewable energy. Why have your sapphire plant in Arizona when you need to ship the product to china for assembly? Lots of sunlight.....
If I understand correctly sapphire scores nine on the Mohs scale, making it the second hardest material in the world after diamond.
The Mohs scale is based on a list of ten common materials. Being one of the ten does not mean there are no others.
In fact, there are several materials that are harder than sapphire (and a couple harder than diamond).
For harder examples than sapphire, check out boron nitride and carborundum... the latter of which can be transparent, and (I was surprised to learn) was used to create an LED back in 1907 (!).
I believe Apple has applied for (or already gotten) Foreign Trade Zone status for their plant.
That way they can make all they want, and only pay custom duties on goods they sell in the US.
Read this article the other day, blew my mind, and made sense as well. Of course, now seeing that Apple themselves is referencing a "crucial component" in the sapphire itself, it seems to be very possible that the solar-cell idea is happening.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/196...iphone-6-and-ipod-touch-under-a-sapphire-hood
Very, very interesting and well-researched article.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/196...iphone-6-and-ipod-touch-under-a-sapphire-hood
Very, very interesting and well-researched article.
iPhone 6S = Saphire
iPhone 7S = Solar?
If Apple goes back to a glass back phone design, they ought to put some solar cells in there. If nothing else it would highlight their status as a green company, especially considering they've put so much solar into their data centers. I think a big part of the finger print sensor was to elevate Apple's status as a secure company, with mobile payments and home automation on the horizon.
Features for the sake of elevating brand image seems to go against their ethos.