Serious question. When has there ever been an issue with scratched screens? Cracked screens? Tons of issues. There's a cottage industry surrounding replacing them. Scratched?
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Smartphone Manufacturers 'Lukewarm' on Sapphire, Call Material Impractical Due to Cost and Supply
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Serious question. When has there ever been an issue with scratched screens? Cracked screens? Tons of issues. There's a cottage industry surrounding replacing them. Scratched?
It sure does! Remember the deafening cries of "We want thinner desktops!" and "Get rid of these accursed DVD drives!".
Even if the material is less suitable for the type of product?
eg: Would a hammer be better made from steel or glass? Which would look coolest?
How about a beach ball from aluminium as it's looks cooler than thin plastic?
That's your problem. You need to consider the best material for the job, not what you have been led to believe is a cool / in fashion material.
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Serious question. When has there ever been an issue with scratched screens? Cracked screens? Tons of issues. There's a cottage industry surrounding replacing them. Scratched?
Exactly.
It's all well and good having a screen that scratches a little if you treat it harshly, but if you drop it, and phones are being dropped all the time you want a display that won't shatter.
Not shattering when dropped is the key
Serious question. When has there ever been an issue with scratched screens? Cracked screens? Tons of issues. There's a cottage industry surrounding replacing them. Scratched?
I have several large, deep scratches on my screen. No idea how they happened, but they are there.
That is an extremely bad comparison. The thickness of the sapphire crystal in watches is far greater than the thickness required for a phone panel. Also the actual size of the sapphire crystal in a watch adds to its strength. It's no where near analogous.
Never will forget that I had my first iPhone out of the package just to look at it upside down on the car tray between the seats .
My dog steps on it in under a minute and it makes a huge scratch. Urrgh.
Otterbox since then, but if this sapphire stuff holds up I'll go commando with my iPhone
Thoughts:
1) Corning has every reason to be disingenuous about it's "comparisons," and likely used straight sapphire, not a thin layer bonded to something else. The bonding agent + bonded surface can mean the world. Corning is afraid of sapphire and doesn't want people leaving GG behind, for obvious reasons.
2) Manufacturers are dissing it because they can't afford/use it. Expect them to change their tune if the material/supply becomes practical for their manufacturing and usage.
3) If that "leaked" display was indeed real (and used sapphire), it would appear as if all this posturing was simply damage mitigation. We'll see -- curious to see how the "new" display fares at drop tests.
1) Corning has every reason to be disingenuous about it's "comparisons," and likely used straight sapphire, not a thin layer bonded to something else. The bonding agent + bonded surface can mean the world. Corning is afraid of sapphire and doesn't want people leaving GG behind, for obvious reasons.
2) Manufacturers are dissing it because they can't afford/use it. Expect them to change their tune if the material/supply becomes practical for their manufacturing and usage.
3) If that "leaked" display was indeed real (and used sapphire), it would appear as if all this posturing was simply damage mitigation. We'll see -- curious to see how the "new" display fares at drop tests.
Seen this all before. The competition poo-poos Apple and what they are doing until it becomes extremely popular and the norm. Suddenly everyone else jumps on the same bandwagon.
I'm reminded of the time we heard that 64bit processors were just marketing. I think calling things 'just marketing' is becoming marketing itself. It's clear that too many other manufacturers don't have the margins to splash out on sapphire. Also Corning aren't going to sit back and watch. It will be interesting. I drop my phone and crush it in equally frequent episodes. I'm not sure who I favour in this.
This is hilarious. Of course these OEMs are going to poo poo because it's not something they're doing and what Apple is doing it has exclusivity on. No way would Apple spend all this money on sapphire just because they think it sounds cool and would look good in marketing materials. If that was the case we'd already have liquid metal products from Apple.
At the end of the day, that image of the sapphire not being as strong as gorilla glass was from corning, and they clearly have an agenda here, so we have to take that with a grain of salt. The same goes for the video of the guy bending the screen.
I guess it makes sense. Apple has always been the king of supply management and generally organizing complex manufacturing and making them a reality.
What else do you expect the competitors to say? Were not as good as Apple when it comes to supply management? No they will blame costs, and other things to make Gorilla glass look good. The only reason Gorilla Glass is cheap is its wide adaptation and general ease of manufacturing. Sapphire has only really been used in watch manufacturing and lense technology. As it comes more widely adapted the cost will fall. Look at when Plasma TVs first came out, costing thousands of dollars, and now everyone has them.
What else do you expect the competitors to say? Were not as good as Apple when it comes to supply management? No they will blame costs, and other things to make Gorilla glass look good. The only reason Gorilla Glass is cheap is its wide adaptation and general ease of manufacturing. Sapphire has only really been used in watch manufacturing and lense technology. As it comes more widely adapted the cost will fall. Look at when Plasma TVs first came out, costing thousands of dollars, and now everyone has them.
You're factoring in the cost of your phone service, which doesn't find its way back to apple.
The actual cost is $650-$850....making a $27 sapphire cover glass premium 4.2% of the base iPhone...about 3X your estimate.
You need a phone plan regardless of which phone you buy, so simplify the equation and just work off the cost of the phone.
And that $30 price is assuming apple is buying sapphire off the open market rather than manufacturing their own using advanced, higher-yield techniques as well as assuming they're using a full-thickness sapphire glass, which patents and leaked videos suggest they're just using a sapphire laminate.
More than likely, apple has the cost down to <$10 a screen. And if it performs like the leaked videos, it's well worth it and not just a marketing gimmick like "analysts" and competitors suggest.
Just like MR users, these "Experts" can't wrap their head around the problem and are working off the assumption that Apple hasn't thought this through and come up with a better solution rather than existing methods of working with sapphire.
Obviously it's too early to place any bets, but from the sound of things as they are, some people are going to get caught with their pants down on this one and Apple is going to bring out a great product.
Reading comprehension is often an issue at MR. Apple and GT actually do have secret manufacturing techniques, and as these other idiots haven't actually examined Apple's product nor Apple's technology they have no way of knowing if Apple's implementation of sapphire is actually good or not. Of course fools don't let ignorance stop them from commenting. We've seen this before- last year 64 A7 chips were just a gimmick. Now we know they have the fastest single-core performance to this day and A7 devices are far ahead of even much never devices in everyday performance. Before that the fools said nobody would type on a touch screen, etc.
One word - CASE
Personally, I love all the iPhones I've owned since they came out. However, due to the form factor & being a guy sans purse, etc. I need a protective case of sorts. I'm not into the mondo-vault Otter Box rig, but rather something that gives my phone a fighting chance when it does visit the deck & I can carry it in my pants' pocket.
So far all I have owned have done the job quite well for me because it's usually a corner that hits first. Rarely have I heard of a phone doing the old peanut butter & jam sandwich stunt, landing face down.
Gorilla glass vs sapphire? If Apple feels through it's exhaustive testing that sapphire is better, that works for me.
Personally, I love all the iPhones I've owned since they came out. However, due to the form factor & being a guy sans purse, etc. I need a protective case of sorts. I'm not into the mondo-vault Otter Box rig, but rather something that gives my phone a fighting chance when it does visit the deck & I can carry it in my pants' pocket.
So far all I have owned have done the job quite well for me because it's usually a corner that hits first. Rarely have I heard of a phone doing the old peanut butter & jam sandwich stunt, landing face down.
Gorilla glass vs sapphire? If Apple feels through it's exhaustive testing that sapphire is better, that works for me.
Yes, that test was conducted by Corning for marketing purposes.
I don't think we can put much stock in that. E.g., I think we can expect that any sapphire screens that appear on Apple devices to be significantly different than the one used in that test.
It was when Corning came out with this video that I started seriously expecting sapphire screens on the next generation of devices. I think we can be sure that Corning made their very best pitch to Apple. This video might have been part of it. But Apple also got the Sapphire pitch too.
If you buy Corning's viewpoint, Apple must have said to themselves, "Well, Sapphire is brittle, heavy and risky compared to the good ol' Gorilla glass we're used to, and a lot more expensive to boot. So, yeah, let's switch to that!"
I just don't think that's how it went down.
A poorly thought-out post to be sure. Only a small percentage of screens crack. Maybe 5%, maybe 15%. Doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. However, 100% of iPhone screens are either hidden behind ugly plastic screen protectors that add weight, dim the colors, and blur the high-resolution imagery or else they are carried without a screen protector like mine in which case they accumulate micro-scratches over time which also dim colors and reduce sharpness. Just try holding a two year old iPhone 5 that's been in someone's pocket for two years next to a new one at the Apple store.Serious question. When has there ever been an issue with scratched screens? Cracked screens? Tons of issues. There's a cottage industry surrounding replacing them. Scratched?
Sapphire will mean no more screen protectors / scratches for Apple's devices, which means that in everyday use the screens will look much better than anything else that's out there, especially after a couple years of use. Apple understands what matters in actual use a lot more than marketing-driven competitors or anonymous forum commentators.
"Slippery Fish"
I totally agree! The iPhone without a case is gorgeous indeed. We love their thinness & art museum look. But they are really easy to drop - especially while one-handing.
I, too, use a case because of this fact and, like The Barron, keep my phone in my pocket.
However, due to the form factor & being a guy sans purse, etc. I need a protective case of sorts. I'm not into the mondo-vault Otter Box rig, but rather something that gives my phone a fighting chance when it does visit the deck & I can carry it in my pants' pocket.
Gorilla glass vs sapphire? If Apple feels through it's exhaustive testing that sapphire is better, that works for me.
I totally agree! The iPhone without a case is gorgeous indeed. We love their thinness & art museum look. But they are really easy to drop - especially while one-handing.
I, too, use a case because of this fact and, like The Barron, keep my phone in my pocket.
I have a screen protector on my Retina iPad Mini and it's amazingly clear (Zagg brand)...you make it out like screen protectors are garbage but they are fantastic. I'll bet people will still put a screen protector on a sapphire screen...
Because they use excellent materials and deliver an outstanding product instead of some second thought-like product.