Corning Unveils 'Project Phire' Super Scratch-Resistant Glass

[Retired Cat]

There are three big names in ion exchange glass:

• Gorilla Glass by Corning (US)
• Xensation by Schott AG (Germany)
• Dragontrail by Ashashi (Japan)

I think they all have licensed their glass to factories in multiple countries, so it can be made wherever it's needed.

All of them are used in smartphones and tablets.

My guess is that Apple doesn't specify, in order to be able to switch suppliers on the fly.

Apple posted this a couple of years ago when they were talking about iOS creating US jobs:

"This figure also includes workers in Texas who manufacture processors for iOS products, Corning employees in Kentucky and New York who create the majority of the glass for iPhone, and FedEx and UPS employees."

No mention of GG by name, however.

But there was the whole thing in Jobs' biography about him going to Corning's CEO and convincing him to convert factories to making Gorilla Glass in quantity.

I think the most likely explanation for Apple's lack of specifying GG explicitly is because they use multiple suppliers for iPhone glass. I suspect that even within the same product line, some batches will use GG but others may use Dragontail or another brand of glass.

When iPhone was first introduced in 2007, the production ramp-up was minuscule compared to a new iPhone launch today. Apple would be wise not to rely on a single supplier for any critical component, as they need to build millions and then tens of millions of units very quickly each year.

My guess is that Apple has its own specifications for glass scratch resistance, shatter resistance, clarity, and other attributes. They buy from vendors that can meet these specs. It would explain some of the variation in glass durability that seems to be reported in the iPhone forum here.

 

[lazyrighteye]

I thought Kentucky was only famous for their:
Chicken
Jelly (think about it...)
Friendly people
Bluegrass (music and actual grass)
Politicians

And now, glass!

Don't forget basketball.

 

[CFreymarc]

We need an iPhone commercial like this featuring Gorilla Glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749iU2Zv1kw

 

[ZipZap]

All corning did was what they should have done from the beginning.

Let's applaud them for the lack of vision 10 years ago.

 

[scott911]

great ad corning...

 

[Butler Trumpet]

Wow. That photoshop of the gorilla and phone on the ground is terrible.

 

[kdarling]

All corning did was what they should have done from the beginning.

Let's applaud them for the lack of vision 10 years ago.

Corning was making ion strengthened glass back in the 1960s.

Heck, I had AMC Javelins/AMXs which used this new hardened glass product. It was thinner, lighter and stronger than the laminated glass that everyone else was using. Trouble was, it cost more. So it kind of fell by the wayside.

Flash forward to 2004, and Motorola switched to glass for their RAZR V3. This got Corning working on their glass again, and around 2005 they began a project they called "Gorilla Glass", which was intended to serve the expected switch to glass in the mobile device market.

That was the existing project that Jobs talked Corning into completing in time to produce glass for the iPhone.

As far as sapphire goes, Corning has made sapphire windows for military use. I think it's their experience doing this that convinced them that glass was a better choice.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Don't forget basketball.

Added it!

 

[appleguy123]

well...since sapphire is stronger than typical glass, it can be thinner?

It's not stronger, it's just more scratch resistant(harder). It actually shatters much easier than glass when dropped.

 

[farewelwilliams]

It's not stronger, it's just more scratch resistant(harder). It actually shatters much easier than glass when dropped.

sapphire itself should be stronger than previous generation gorilla glass.