Connect with us

Technology

Why Didn’t Apple Use Sapphire Glass in the iPhone 6?

Published

on

Why Didn’t Apple Use Sapphire Glass in the iPhone 6?

Why Didn’t Apple Use Sapphire Glass in the iPhone 6?

It is a longstanding tradition for the rumour mill to heat up before a highly anticipated Apple product launch. With each event getting more attention than the previous, it is no surprise that sometimes the hype gets out of hand.

This has led to a new tradition: the entire internet griping about which rumours and leaks that Apple was unable to fulfill with their latest product.

The case was no different for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch yesterday at the Flint Center in Cupertino. Prior to launch, the most persistent buzz about the iPhone 6 was that it would be the first major smartphone to adopt sapphire glass displays rather than use Gorilla Glass, the industry standard.

However, as the launch got closer and closer, it became more and more doubtful that sapphire glass would be used – even despite Apple’s $578 million investment in producing the material. Reports were that the Arizona plant was still slow to ramp up, and it also surfaced that supply chain insiders had not seen enough orders go through.

So why didn’t Apple use sapphire glass in the iPhone 6?

The first reason has to do with the sapphire glass itself. While the material is almost as hard to scratch as a diamond, it turns out that any small impurity in the material can severely compromise its structural integrity. GT Advanced Technologies, the maker that Apple has partnered with, would have had to ramp up production to unprecedented levels while producing flawless material for an estimated 80 million iPhones.

What makes this even more difficult is the way that synthetic sapphires are made. To grow each crystal, aluminum oxide must be heated to 3,700°F in a controlled furnace. Then, the crystal is grown out in a boule and cut with diamond-laced saws. This is a very intricate and involving process, which is much more difficult to ramp up than an industrial scale glass operation such as that of Corning and its Gorilla Glass.

The second big reason that made sapphire glass difficult to integrate within a short timeline is that the economies of scale are not yet there to make the price worthwhile for Apple customers. There are multiple estimates on the price differential, but one estimate puts sapphire as 10x more expensive than Gorilla Glass.

That could be brought down significantly with streamlined production, likely to at least the 3-4x range. In any case, to keep the same margins Apple has, the cost would have to be passed to the customer. Is it worth $100+ to the end user to have more scratch resistant glass?

Maybe some would agree, but Apple believes that it definitely wasn’t worth the risk just yet.


1 Comment

Technology

Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.

Published

on

Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.

Data and Methodology

To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.

With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.

DepartmentLarge impact (%)Small impact (%)No impact (%)
IT73261
Finance70219
Customer Sales671617
Operations651817
HR57412
Marketing56413
Legal46504
Supply Chain431839

In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.

Where AI will make the biggest impact

Jobs in infogramtion technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.

Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.

Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.

Continue Reading

Subscribe

Popular