Sapphire Screens and the Phire project: How Apple wants to improve the iPhone screens

Featured article by Kerry Blake, MS Office expert, trainer and lecturer.

iPhone is one of the costliest gadgets we have in the market, with the latest iPhone 6 Plus model starting from $299. With the difficulty in customizing user experience where iPhones are concerned, and the fact that Apple products cost a lot of money for repair, a lot of customers end up buying Android systems and cheaper models. Apple however remains unfazed at the fact that a high price could be a turn off for many potential customers, and is simply focusing on matters which will ultimately pay off well.

Apple demands a price that best suits the quality of the products it sells. Being aware of the costly repairs that damaged iPhone screens could result in, it is on the lookout for stronger materials to make its gadgets resistant to damages from fall. You should be prepared if you want your iPhone screen refurbished or replaced. For repairing iPhone 3G or 3GS Digitaliser people have to pay $70, while for refurbishing an iPhone 4/4s screen they need to offer $80. The price increases to $90 to repair the iPhone 4 screen. Customers need to shell out $119 and $199 for replacing the screen of iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 respectively. iPhone screen replacement can be very expensive according to prices at iPhone Doctor.

In the year 2014, Apple started looking for a solution for all its customers who are unhappy about high repair costs. The Company finally decided to use the sapphire material to create its screens. Reports were rife with explanations on how sapphire screens would be used for every iPhone so as to enhance their functionality. This was an exciting proposition for many but troubling news to some. Sapphire is not a very common material on Earth and the man-made synthetic sapphire is mainly used for airplane windows and armored vehicles for high strength and resistance to high temperature. They are also unresponsive to most chemical corrosion, thereby being best suited for protection. Synthetic sapphire is very expensive, and many expected that the cost for each screen’s production would rise to $16 from $3 that Apple was spending for Guerrilla glass. Knowing that this would certainly increase the price of all iPhones, Apple decided to use sapphire material for only the new, larger iPhone 6 phones which people would be less reluctant to buy.

However, over the year 2014 it became apparent that this idea was too difficult to be carried out. At first, Apple had bought its own set of furnaces to produce the sapphire itself, but then decided it would be better to delegate the task to someone else. Apple paired up with GT Technologies Inc to create the sapphire screens, but most of the products that were delivered by the latter were of low standards. This mainly happened because of Apple’s high demand at low cost value which pretty much crippled GT. Sapphire being a very expensive material cannot be used yet as a cost-effective item for any product meant for mass usage. Apple decided to go ahead with the production of iPhone 6 without the sapphire screens. Finally after the launch of iPhone 6, GT filed for bankruptcy.

Experts claimed that the new iPhone 6 screen is made of extremely tough ion-strengthened glass that has been given a hot potassium bath. American Chemical Society also stated that traces of gold, aluminium, tin, silver and silicon were found in the phone, along with two very rare elements of Earth: Terbium and Gadolinium. This toughened glass on iPhone 6 will still shatter on a very high impact, but it is about 8 times stronger than normal glass, and hence is the best option that Apple can provide its customers right now. But a lot of people speculate that Apple may go back to sapphire or think of using Corning’s new project Phire for iPhone 7.

Corning is already responsible for manufacturing the Guerrilla Glass that Apple has been using to make the iPhone screens so far, and this new project Phire aims to strengthen up glass to the extent where it acquires sapphire-like resistance to damage. This new Phire glass will be very hard to scratch or crack. However, this project is still in development so no one really knows what the iPhone 7 screens will be like.

But it is a known fact that Apple is investing in new technologies to get the best iPhone screen that would be optimum in its functionality and appearance. Having observed the successful curve in the Company’s career with its ‘new-gen’ gadgets, it is easy to expect something truly revolutionary that would keep iPhone screens from getting damaged.

Interesting videos where you can find comparison between Gorilla and Saphire;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVQbu_BsZ9o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzA-oLPC-e0

Kerry Blake is a MS Office expert, and has been a trainer and lecturer for the past seven years. As he put it, “Most of my articles are inspired by people I meet in class. You can find me writing about technology and cars when I feel I got something to say.”