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Rising Sapphire Display Cost May Limit Production of 5.5-Inch iPhone 6

claus1225 said:
people need to understand that the cost of iphone is relatively low compared to the cost of monthly bills.

on a 2 year contract, you'll spend around $2000 to $3000.

it's irelevant iphone 6 costs $100 or $200 more on contractual price.

even if the iphone costs $500 on 2 year old contract, people will still buy it.
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Not if you can get something similar (not iOS) for $200.
 
Seriously doubt this will effect Apple this year. The contracts they have for sapphire would have been sign last year. Plus, given the fact that they have a factory dedicated to just apple sapphire demands would cut cost dramatically.
 
furi0usbee said:
Good laughs in the morning. I paid full price for my 5 no contract in US. Now, if they think I'm going to pay $1k for a phone, well, I guess I'll going to the cheap, plastic route with Samsung. This report is BS. Costly sapphire? I first heard they couldn't make enough. Now it's too costly? And Apple has a partnership with a wait... sapphire company?

Maybe the rumors are true of Apple talking to carriers about a $100 price bump. But adding several more hundred on top of that... pure rubbish.
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i hope you are wrong about $100 price bump. Not sure how many people are willing to pay and extra 100 for 4.7in iPhone6 (outside the Macrumors crowd) .
 
claus1225 said:
people need to understand that the cost of iphone is relatively low compared to the cost of monthly bills.

on a 2 year contract, you'll spend around $2000 to $3000.

it's irelevant iphone 6 costs $100 or $200 more on contractual price.

even if the iphone costs $500 on 2 year old contract, people will still buy it.
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Sure, people will buy it, but how many won't? Apple is losing market share as it is, at it's current pricing. You're deluding yourself if you think a 50% increase in the cost of the phone isn't going to matter. Especially when fewer people think it's the best smartphone around.
 
People take those rumours too seriously, you remember for the iPhone 5, they said it would take out the garbage? Well they were wrong!!!
 
Regardless of what product these saphire displays end up being used in, Apple's a very smart company and I'm positive they forecasted a strict demand plan to include all manufacturing and labor cost variances well in advance. There's no way they would be caught short-sighted on something this important to their 2014 line plan and manufacturing process. This is just poor reporting and speculation. :cool:
 
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tkanyc said:
As a gemologist, I'm very familiar with sapphire's durability and usefulness in certain applications. They're used for high end watch crystals because they're very scratch resistant. They do chip and abrade, however. And they're not flexible. I have doubts that sapphire would provide significant net durability benefits over Corning's Gorilla Glass, and that's before cost/benefit considerations.

Count me as one who thinks that Apple's sapphire displays will remain on small screens only (iWatch, iPod Nano, etc), and won't supplant Gorilla Glass for iPhone.
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It could be added to the iPhone camera and iPhone TouchID sensor. But I agree small applications only.
 
tethernaut said:
Morons. Sapphire prices have skyrocketed because Apple has cornered the market... at a favorable price. What others would have to pay for a sapphire display is not what Apple will have to pay for a sapphire display.
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True. :)
There appear to be several shills also.
 
Serban said:
ok so your people with scratch screen use their phone further?? or get the screen replace or another phone??
you see more scratch screen believe me because a lots of people dont want a replacement just for a little scatch BUT for a broken screen, my god no one wants to use it
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I'm not talking about scratched screens being replaced. I'm talking about broken screens being replaced. I'm saying that I don't think scratched screens are an issue at all. I haven't read about anyone here or elsewhere on other forums complaining about their screens scratching.
 
Hmm

"Price of component goes up! May increase price of phone by up to 50%!"

(in other news)

"Apple trying to convince carriers to increase price by $100."

Hmm...
 
Not really, I am pretty sure Apple found a cheap way to use sapphire. A sapphire display with a layer that protects it from cracking would make an extremely durable device. I don't want to place a plastic anti-stratch film to protect my iPhone, it feel awful.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
I'm not talking about scratched screens being replaced. I'm talking about broken screens being replaced. I'm saying that I don't think scratched screens are an issue at all. I haven't read about anyone here or elsewhere on other forums complaining about their screens scratching.
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People always complain about factory problems not if you scratch/broke your phone

Complaining is for the manufacturing not for your own mistakes
Few people come here or on any forum complain about omg i scratch/broke my phone
 
Can't trust this rumor. However, one thing about Apple is that they want to distinguish their products from the competitors. Sapphire being something not easily mass produced is actually to Apple's advantage. The copycat will not get it as easily as the Gorilla Glasses.
 
scbn said:
Can't trust this rumor. However, one thing about Apple is that they want to distinguish their products from the competitors. Sapphire being something not easily mass produced is actually to Apple's advantage. The copycat will not get it as easily as the Gorilla Glasses.
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Yes this is very true. I think 2 years at least, will pass until the others will do the same
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Everyone should believe whatever they want. However the sentiment in the above cracks me up. Go back to before there was a 4" screen in iPhones and this crowd would sling the very same kind of message about any size other than the only and only "perfect" size of 3.5"

When the rumors built up enough that it looked like Apple would shift, "we" hedged a bit with "wait & see". When it became increasingly likely, "we" started embracing the idea. When Apple rolled it out, "best iPhone ever".

Then, "we" bashed anything above 4" as "abominations", "no way Apple would ever", "need bigger-pocketed pants" and good ol' "99.9% would never want a..." and similar. Now, the rumors are piling up again so we're shifting toward ideas that maybe all of "us" should be in that .1% that might want a phone above 4" and don't think it is an "abomination". Courtesy of the Samsung case, we know that Apple itself believes customers want bigger-screened phones so we have some evidence of Apple itself thinking the screen needs to grow. So we're hedging our opinions further because we know it's coming.

If Apple rolls out only a 4.7", "we" will apparently continue to bash anything bigger because 4.7" will be the third incarnation of the new and perfect sized screen for smart phones. If Apple rolls out only a 5.5", ditto. If Apple rolls out both, "we" will have a thousand threads of "which should I buy" with posts within those threads gushing about whichever one "I" bought is the only and only best size that "you" should want too.

Personally, I'd ONLY be interested in the 5.5" for my own wants. So if there's "no way in hell", I'm not buying an iPhone. On the other hand, if Apple has learned that people want bigger screens- and they have- maybe they've also learned that one size doesn't fit all. And if they want all of the money- and they do- they might then roll out more than one size of screen. It's not like Apple would never roll out 2 models of new iPhones with differing features. They just did that in the last launch.
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Well said. And that's the way it was with the iPhone going from 3.5" to 4" and the same thing for the "Apple will never make a smaller iPad" comments that went on for months. Now the mini is the most popular iPad.
As long as Apple doesn't kill it on price, I have no doubt the next larger screen iPhone will be the perfect size once again.

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Serban said:
People always complain about factory problems not if you scratch/broke your phone

Complaining is for the manufacturing not for your own mistakes
Few people come here or on any forum complain about omg i scratch/broke my phone
Click to expand...

But people would come here and elsewhere and complain if their phone scratched easily just as they did with the iPhone 5 anodizing scratching easily. If something doesn't take normal use without scratching or failing, people will complain about, IMO. Steve wasn't satisfied with the iPhone prototypes because the screen was plastic and scratched easily, hence the change to glass.
 
Costs vs. Benefits

I wonder if there's a sweet spot in there to bundle the AppleCare along with a Sapphire Upgrade for maybe $100 more than traditional AppleCare. This way they might offset some of the extra costs into protection of a phone that may not need as many warranty claims anyway.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
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But people would come here and elsewhere and complain if their phone scratched easily just as they did with the iPhone 5 anodizing scratching easily. If something doesn't take normal use without scratching or failing, people will complain about, IMO. Steve wasn't satisfied with the iPhone prototypes because the screen was plastic and scratched easily, hence the change to glass.
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So yes manufacturing issues and not own mistakes.
So out there in a real world you will find from 50 people 20 with scratch and probably none with broken screen.
In my last 4 years i saw only 2 broken phones and i asked that persons how can they use those phones like that..but the answer always was "today/yesterday i broke it and tomorrow i will replace it". So bottom line phones that breaks are replace next day,simple as that but from iphone 6 you will never see a non perfect screen because scratches will be out of the questions
 
Quu said:
I don't understand what this has to do with Apple when they are manufacturing the Sapphire themselves and from what I understand they build a block of sapphire using only a tiny piece of sapphire as a catalyst, it grows like a crystal so how would the cost of Sapphire affect them if they are growing their own sapphire blocks?
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Someone didn't read the article.
 
t0mat0 said:
iPhone 5s Bill Of Materials: ~$200

Reported cost of Sapphire screen: ~$200.
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reports suggest that a sapphire for an upcoming 4.7" size will cost 80$-100$
so the increase with 100$ overall for an iPhone 6 is justify and they will have this material for at least 2 years until another company will copy
 
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