Daniel Hruška Corning's name may not be familiar to everyone, but its Gorilla Glass, which is used to protect iPhone displays, is something we touch with our fingers every day. According to Corning executive James ClappAnother company is preparing to launch a new glass with greater durability than the current Gorilla Glass 4 and a hardness approaching that of sapphire.
The whole thing was announced at an investor meeting in early February this year and is called Project Phire. According to Cl, the new material should be on the marketappina to get later this year: "Last year we said that sapphire is great for scratch resistance, but it doesn't do so well in drops anymore. So we created a new product that has better properties than Gorilla Glass 4, all with scratch resistance almost like sapphire."
Corning and its Gorilla Glass were under a lot of pressure last year, due to rumors about the use of synthetic sapphire glass in iPhonewhich she allegedly had AppGT Advanced was supposed to supply it. However, last year, unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy, and so it was obvious that the new iPhones would not get sapphire.
Corning's position in the market hasn't changed, but Gorilla Glass has been under more scrutiny than ever. There were comparison videos in which the sapphire didn't get a single scratch, whereas the Corning product was blessed with them. It doesn't matter at all that Gorilla Glass performed better in the drop simulation, the company's entire reputation was at stake. So there is nothing better than taking Gorilla Glass and adding sapphire properties to it.
Such glass will fit perfectly with smartphones and tablets, but also with the growing smart watch market. Already today, Corning supplies its glasses for the Motorola 360 watch. As for the upcoming ones Apple Watch, Watch and Watch Edition will get sapphire, Watch Sport will get ion-strengthened Ion-X Glass. Project Phire may provide an answer to what the future of highly durable and hard glass should look like for a wide range of devices.
