Samsung and LG Reportedly Exploring Sapphire Crystal Displays

[typeadam]

Oh come on, get real! I'm talking to YOU, MR readers, NOT Samsung or LG! What do you expect a tech company to do?? Sit on their ass and twiddle their thumbs??
BOTH of those companies make displays, it's only logical they'd revisit sapphire if Apple, one of the biggest display-consuming companies, is having success with it!
And don't tell me it's Apple's invention that Samsung is copying b/c my watches had sapphire crystals for as long as I can remember...
By your logic, if years ago, company X experimented with polypropylene for use in speakers but went back to using paper, then the more successful company Y started using polypropylene exclusively for all their speakers, company X and every other speaker company shouldn't use it and should stick w/ paper speakers?

...bertstare.jpg

 

[doelcm82]

Not an expert, but my assumption was that sapphire would be a very thin coating on top of the gorilla glass rather than a replacement. Best of both worlds.

I'm not an expert either, but it seems to me the fewer layers between the finger and the display and touch sensor, the better the performance, appearance, and user experience will be.

 

[C. Robert]

exploring my arse! They are getting the xerox machine ready.

 

[macintoshi]

[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Apple is leading the way in the adoption of sapphire, with the company producing the material in limited quantities in its new Arizona plant. A portion of this material is expected to land in the iPhone 6 and possibly the iWatch as a scratch-resistant display material. According to Korean media reports (via GforGames), both Samsung and LG are showing renewed interest in sapphire following Apple's early success in manufacturing the material.

ImageFurnaces for sapphire glass production​

LG and Samsung allegedly explored the feasibility of using sapphire in their phones last year, but rejected the material due to the high cost of production. Now that Apple is moving forward with the material, Samsung and LG are reevaluating their earlier decisions, reaching out to sapphire glass manufacturers and requesting product samples for examination. Sapphire may be a critical component of Apple's rumored iWatch, providing an outer scratch-resistant layer to the wrist-worn device. Recent rumors also suggest Apple may incorporate a sapphire crystal display into its upcoming iPhone 6. A recent research note from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests the initial supply of sapphire displays could be limited, forcing Apple to use the material only in select high-end models of the upcoming handset.

Article Link: Samsung and LG Reportedly Exploring Sapphire Crystal Displays

Hopefully they jump in before iphone 6 or saphire iphone, so apple cant claim to be the first!

 

[Digital Skunk]

Hopefully they jump in before iphone 6 or saphire iphone, so apple cant claim to be the first!

The rumor-mill and fanbase will give credit to Apple.

Or at the very least all Apple has to do is say that "X" product wasn't ready for primetime and anyone else that has "X" product did it wrong.

 

[Rogifan]

WSJ is reporting that Samsung will announce a smartwatch that can make phone calls June. Will be interesting to see what the battery life is. I feel bad for anyone who bought a gear earlier this year. They might have waited if they knew only a couple months later another watch would be coming out that had phone call capabilities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/23/samsung-mobilephone-idUSL1N0O90W620140523

 

[viacavour]

Oh come on, get real! I'm talking to YOU, MR readers, NOT Samsung or LG! What do you expect a tech company to do?? Sit on their ass and twiddle their thumbs??
BOTH of those companies make displays, it's only logical they'd revisit sapphire if Apple, one of the biggest display-consuming companies, is having success with it!
And don't tell me it's Apple's invention that Samsung is copying b/c my watches had sapphire crystals for as long as I can remember...
By your logic, if years ago, company X experimented with polypropylene for use in speakers but went back to using paper, then the more successful company Y started using polypropylene exclusively for all their speakers, company X and every other speaker company shouldn't use it and should stick w/ paper speakers?

...bertstare.jpg

It speaks volume about Samsung's brand. Copying and ****** implementation. People are just turned off by their general behavior in the past and present.

If the news was Sony investigating Sapphire, I think people may not react as strongly.

----------

Hopefully they jump in before iphone 6 or saphire iphone, so apple cant claim to be the first!

They already did that with a gold phone. Got laughed away.

I think Vertu already has an expensive Sapphire phone. So Apple won't be first anyway. It's never about being first for Apple.

----------

WSJ is reporting that Samsung will announce a smartwatch that can make phone calls June. Will be interesting to see what the battery life is. I feel bad for anyone who bought a gear earlier this year. They might have waited if they knew only a couple months later another watch would be coming out that had phone call capabilities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/23/samsung-mobilephone-idUSL1N0O90W620140523

They are a supplier of tech as well. Any lousy implementation is free advertising and training for their supplier business. Just don't buy them coz they are meant for Samsung's upstream customers to evaluate the technical and production feasibility, not end consumers.

They don't really care about consumers when they throw out bad implementations to begin with. Look at the finger print prototype and unstable sensor chip in their cellphones.

 

[Mildredop]

doesn't mean it's all true especially from the media and Internet.

Or random internet forum guys.

I think I'll trust the Cult Of Mac and the New Yorker over you. Apple stole it. End of.

 

[NT1440]

I'm not an expert either, but it seems to me the fewer layers between the finger and the display and touch sensor, the better the performance, appearance, and user experience will be.

Sapphire is highly conductive for touch applications, more so than your standard gorilla glass. It's also going to enable much brighter screens while simultaneously lowering power consumption.

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...strates-came-to-light-in-japan-this-week.html

 

[yellowtruck]

Wrong. It's called "leading the way", not "arriving first". For "being the first to use sapphire crystal displays in a phone", they'd have to produce a product. "Leading the way" means "being followed". If some luxury phone maker built some thousand phones with sapphire crystal before Apple, they would be first, but if they are not followed then it would still be Apple "leading the way".

ouch! original poster got totally clowned! haha, clowned!

----------

Have to say I'm done with Samsung. I find the continual stream of credibility exposures has turned me off them completely, not just competitive phones etc. but any device. I just move on now.

For such a clearly capable and innovative company they seem to lack fundamental ethics in their business model. In today's world you're going to get exposed, and that means lost opportunity with folks like me....

It makes perfect sense for them to compete and some technologies will be the same, but I'm genuinely ambivalent now, irrespective of achievement.

Me too especially after I read their CEO was charged with Fruad and Bribes in 2008. Its gross to think they got to where they are by parasiting off of other companies over the years as they did with Apple, then turn around and bash them after running of with their designs! Nasty!

 

[samcraig]

Some of the responses in this thread are silly.

Samsung and LG already investigated the technology. At the time, they found it cost prohibitive. So now they are re-examining that. Is that copying Apple? No - it's leveraging new market information to re-examine their decision and previous research.

It's what any smart business would do.

 

[viacavour]

Or random internet forum guys.

I think I'll trust the Cult Of Mac and the New Yorker over you. Apple stole it. End of.

lol. It's ok. I am not here to preach. You are a smart guy. I know you already get the truth despite what you posted. Check other sources. There's Andy Hetzfeld's folklore.org if you want more Mac stories from the dev team instead of just trusting a site that write articles to draw clicks. ;-)

 

[linuxcooldude]

Oh come on, get real! I'm talking to YOU, MR readers, NOT Samsung or LG! What do you expect a tech company to do?? Sit on their ass and twiddle their thumbs??
BOTH of those companies make displays, it's only logical they'd revisit sapphire if Apple, one of the biggest display-consuming companies, is having success with it!
And don't tell me it's Apple's invention that Samsung is copying b/c my watches had sapphire crystals for as long as I can remember...
By your logic, if years ago, company X experimented with polypropylene for use in speakers but went back to using paper, then the more successful company Y started using polypropylene exclusively for all their speakers, company X and every other speaker company shouldn't use it and should stick w/ paper speakers?

...bertstare.jpg

Some adoption by other companies is normal and to be expected. But Samsung tends to match Apple way too closely so they can say...We have everything the iPhone has and maybe even cheaper!" But do little to improve on that design which is usually a poor implementation of Apples existing device.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Filed under: Copying. Apple. See previous attempts.

At least someone acknowledges Apple is an innovator.

The difference is that Apple will own their supply chain for their sapphire. Samsung and the others are going to have to go out there and put together their own supply chain.

 

[alexgowers]

It's

Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal

Please it is NOT GLASS!

You are talking about structurally such a different material that is actually strong without any gorilla glass layering and encapsulation.

Personally think apple will use for iwatch to begin with but I don't think its scalable to iPhone size screens.

I wonder if anyone knows enough about the technology in the area to shed light on why it's now in 2014 that all these companies are looking at it again when before the tech didn't allow it's use? It makes no sense for Samsung and LG To look at it for anything but NEW products if they rejected it for phones and no tech progress has been made in the industry.

 

[osofast240sx]

Isn't this getting a bit ridiculous, Samsung?

They would be idiots not to explore sapphire.

 

[yellowtruck]

Don’t rationalize Samsung’s theft and shady business practices!

You're all so bitter!

This is business. All companies copy, some get caught out and end up being sued. Unless Apple have invented and got the rights to Sapphire Glass, I don't see the problem.

And Apple are equally guilty of copying. In some ways worse. I remember hearing something about how Steve Jobs took a visit to Xerox (I think), saw their prototype of a mouse and so he literally stole the idea.

Don’t rationalize Samsung’s theft and shady business practices!

 

[duffman9000]

It's

Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal

Please it is NOT GLASS!

You are talking about structurally such a different material that is actually strong without any gorilla glass layering and encapsulation.

Personally think apple will use for iwatch to begin with but I don't think its scalable to iPhone size screens.

I wonder if anyone knows enough about the technology in the area to shed light on why it's now in 2014 that all these companies are looking at it again when before the tech didn't allow it's use? It makes no sense for Samsung and LG To look at it for anything but NEW products if they rejected it for phones and no tech progress has been made in the industry.

The problem is cost. That's why Samsung and LG rejected Sapphire. IIRC, Apple patented a method to make this process cheaper, somehow.

 

[TheHateMachine]

Some of the responses in this thread are silly.

Samsung and LG already investigated the technology. At the time, they found it cost prohibitive. So now they are re-examining that. Is that copying Apple? No - it's leveraging new market information to re-examine their decision and previous research.

It's what any smart business would do.

Gotta wonder where all their outrage was when the rumor of the sapphire display started coming around. "Apple is COPING Vertu, omg scum!"

Nope, turn a blind eye when the company you cheer lead for is doing the copying, lambaste the competition when they do. You would think some of these people run around in their daily lives with Anti Samsung shirts and hiss when the name is even mentioned.

 

[duffman9000]

I don't see what Samsung and LG are doing as wrong. In fact, they will provide me massive enjoyment when they find that it isn't economically feasible to follow Apple in the mass production of Sapphire for phones.

Pesky contracts will prevent GT Advanced from working with anyone but Apple so Samsung and LG will have to look elsewhere. Building it from scratch? Welcome to even more years behind Apple. See how much fun this will be?

 

[viacavour]

Gotta wonder where all their outrage was when the rumor of the sapphire display started coming around. "Apple is COPING Vertu, omg scum!"

Nope, turn a blind eye when the company you cheer lead for is doing the copying, lambaste the competition when they do. You would think some of these people run around in their daily lives with Anti Samsung shirts and hiss when the name is even mentioned.

People are aware of the limited production Vertu phone, but at the same time Apple's patent indicates that their implementation will be different, especially for mass production.

It's also only one component in the entire phone. The Vertu phone is very different from the iPhone, and it's expensive.

There is no need to turn a blind eye towards Apple. Anyone can tell an iPhone from a Vertu phone, or a Mac from a Xerox.

OTOH, Samsung continue to ape Apple's every move. Look at even their flagship phone name.
S5 vs the original 5s. Look at other phones on the market. They all try to establish their own ID.

Even Google remarked that the first Samsung copy phone looks too similar to iPhone.

Facepalm. If Apple hadn't sued, Samsung would be copying everything happily. Now at least they are more sensitive to it but their brand have been damaged I think.

Edit: You also don't have to look at Apple alone. Look at other companies that Samsung infringed and victimized. There was a recent article about their practices.

 

[Lone Deranger]

"Are you for real ?? Apple is NOT LEADING NOTHING !

Aaah... the unintentional double negative. Always a sign to disregard it's author.

 

[kdarling]

Pesky contracts will prevent GT Advanced from working with anyone but Apple so Samsung and LG will have to look elsewhere. Building it from scratch? Welcome to even more years behind Apple. See how much fun this will be?

Uh, there have been sapphire factories around for well over a century.

Heck, even Corning Glass has been making small amounts of sapphire for the military for years.

If the demand for it increases, you can bet that more factories will spring up all over the world (just as they did for Gorilla Glass and newly competing glasses).

--

I think some people here are still confusing making something popular, with inventing that something.

If Apple makes sapphire screens popular, then others will follow. It's no different than Apple seeing and following the popularity of big screens or smaller tablets.

All companies look all the time to see what is popular or not, and then evaluate if they want to do the same thing. For instance, Apple made aluminum popular again. HTC went with it. Samsung did not.

.

 

[ChrisA]

Sapphire is NOT glass. The use of the term "sapphire glass," makes me crazy, and shows how little supposed experts know of materials science. It is absolutely not interchangeable with "sapphire crystal."

You are fighting an up hill battle on that one. How many tech writers did well even in high school chemistry? And you are asking them to understand the difference between an amorphous and crystalline structure? But even the writers who know this have to write for the average reader 99% of whom likely don't know or care about the difference.

I'm surprised the media is not taking the opportunity to talk about hardness vs. toughness and what we can expect of sapphire.

 

[cdmoore74]

Bunch of you guys sound like cry babies. No different when car manufacturers started using air bags in the 90's. Or backup cameras, anti-lock brakes and traction control. How would you like it if Chevy (first car manufacturer to use airbags) prevented all others from having airbags in cars? Think about that when you enter your non GM car.
Hypocrites!!!