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Sapphire Glass Didn't Pass iPhone Drop Test According to Reports

Posted by samzenpus on from the trying-something-different dept.

SternisheFan notes reports about why Apple didn't use sapphire glass screens in the latest iPhones as many expected. Sapphire screens were part of the iPhone 6 design until the glass repeatedly cracked during standard drop tests conducted by Apple suppliers. So Apple abandoned its sapphire plans before the iPhone 6 product launch September 9. VentureBeat has learned that recent supplier channel checks by an IDC analyst yielded several reports of the sapphire failures and Apple's decision against using the glass material. As we heard on Tuesday in Cupertino, both the iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6 Plus will ship with screens made of "ion-strengthened" glass. This was apparently Apple's second choice. IDC analyst Danielle Levitas says it isn't clear when exactly the drop-test failures took place, or when Apple abandoned plans for sapphire-screened iPhones. She says the poor drop-test results, combined with the relative high cost of sapphire glass, could have made plans to ship sapphire glass phones too risky. One researcher who covers GT Advanced Technologies, the company that was to produce the glass for the iPhone 6, wrote in a research note earlier this week that plans for the sapphire screens were cancelled in August, just weeks before the September 9 launch. The new Apple Watches (except the "Sport" version) do use sapphire for their screens. Levitas believes that the glass for the smaller 1.5-inch and 1.7-inch watch screens was less likely to break in drop tests.

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Ion strengthened? by Megol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't that what standard hardened glass is?

    1. Re: Ion strengthened? by GodInHell · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That whooshing sound you hear is dozens of people reading your post and saying "this idiot knows nothing about genetics. "

  2. Re:Drop vs. Scratch by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Replaceable is better than any amount of drop or scratch resistance.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  3. Re: didn't have to be worse.. by GodInHell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Removing features that degrade a tool should be praised. I say this as a dyed in the wool android fan boy.

  4. Re:didn't have to be worse.. by sl149q · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So if the referenced article is to be believed...

    Sometime early in August Apple decided to to with ion strengthened glass for the new iPhone 6 models. They then cancelled the orders for sapphire screens and did what... with only six weeks to go before launch, probably several weeks into full production, they placed an order for 10 million or so screens? Its not like you can phone Digikey and ask for 10 million screens and please have them here in 24 hours please and thank.

    Any decision about screens was made many months ago so that the Ion Screen manufacturer would have sufficient time to make them and ship them prior to when the iPhone 6's production needed to start. And initial production was probably in June.

    So more likely March or April.

  5. Re:didn't have to be worse.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Slashdot has become such an Apple fanboy site that even removing features is now praised.

    There's an element of desperate misdirection in their madness.

    If the story is true, and sapphire glass unsuitable for displays, Apple has just blown away close to a billion dollars. That's a big cost that'll have to be passed on to their customers.

    http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/30/...