Vertu COO Perry Oosting spoke this week on the company’s past with Apple, noting how dealings with Sapphire Crystal Displays fell through. This British luxury phone company, Vertu, has itself created smartphones with just such displays working in a lovely manner – but for mass production, it seems, it just wasn’t meant to be. According
Gorilla Glass is used in millions of handheld products, including smartphones and tablets. The glass offers a stronger, more durable build that makes it scratch-resistent and less likely to break. While it’s mostly meant for consumer electronic devices, we could be seeing Gorilla Glass make its way into the auto industry as soon as next
Corning’s Gorilla Glass might soon step out of its phone- and tablet-filled lifestyle to explore a bigger part of the jungle. The material — used thus far to make a plethora of scratch-resistant mobile device screens — could replace some of the standard glass on car windows, according to company Senior VP Jeffrey Evenson. Speaking at MIT Technology Review’s Mobile Summit, Evenson says Gorilla Glass will reduce a vehicle’s weight and lower its center of mass. Theoretically, that means you could get better gas mileage than you would with a ride outfitted with run-of-the-mill glass. In addition, the material also acts as a noise filter, making car cabins quieter. Considering that auto manufacturers are striving to push the fuel-efficiency envelope, these claims sound like they could pan out. If you’re a see-it-to-believe-it type though, you can always wait for the first cars with Gorilla Glass windows. Evenson didn’t name a particular client, but he expects at least one high-end auto maker to start selling them within the next year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Tablets
Source: MIT Technology Review
Corning’s Lotus Glass promised a world full of thinner, more advanced mobile displays when it was unveiled in 2011, but it hasn’t always been easy to build with the volumes or features that customers want. Enter the company’s new Lotus XT Glass as the solution: clients can produce it more reliably at high temperatures, leading to more usable panels for our LCDs and OLEDs. The improved yields should not only result in larger device volumes than the original Lotus Glass could muster, but push the technological limits — Corning notes that hotter manufacturing allows for brighter, sharper and more efficient screens. The glass is commercially available today, although we’ll still need to wait for gadget makers to choose, implement and ship it before we notice the XT difference.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
Source: Corning
I am quite sure by now that most of us who are familiar with touchscreen mobile devices would have heard of Gorilla Glass by now, where it has been claimed that this glass is capable of some pretty rough treatment through everyday use without breaking. Well, Corning says that the strength of sapphire phone screens might not live up to your expectations, despite being naturally strong, highly scratch resistant, and has the ability to withstand flexing with the added bonus of transmitting light very well – or at least, according to popular opinion.
Corning, the maker of the Gorilla Glass material which sees action across a wide range of smartphone displays, has this to say. After testing the strength of sapphire claims in-house, they claim that sapphire is a poor choice in taking in abuse for large smartphone displays, although they work fine in offering protection to watch faces and camera lenses. So far, no detailed report of its test results have been shared just yet, and there has been no plans as at press time to work alongside an independent testing outfit to confirm its findings. What you hear here are results from Corning’s own in-house test, which was run in Corning’s own lab. Sapphire did well in resistance to macro-scratches, but failed in a tumble test as the device spun close to an hour, picking up scratches that weakened its structure, before it succumbed to a ring-on-ring pressure test.
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According to the folks at Samsung and Corning, the Galaxy S4 will be the first Samsung device to make use of Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. Why is this significant? Well for those with butter fingers, the Gorilla Glass 3 is said to be up to three time as scratch resistant as its predecessor, meaning that it will be able to take a fair bit of abuse. We agree that it does sound a bit like marketing talk, so the question is can the display really take a beating before showing signs of damage? Well one Samsung Galaxy S4 owner decided to put the new Gorilla Glass 3 display to the test and has attempted to scratch the display of the phone with knives, keys and coins, with no success! It’s a bit cringe-worthy to see such a beautiful device abused this way, but at the same time it’s good news for those who don’t believe in screen protectors or covers for their phones.
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There have been rumors of Apple making a device called the iWatch. This isn’t too far-fetched considering that smart watches aren’t exactly new, and not forgetting that Apple did explore the concept of a wearable device in a recently discovered patent. Now many believed that Corning could be the one who supplies Apple with flexible displays for the alleged iWatch using their new Willow material. Considering that Corning supplies the glass for Apple’s iPhone, this was a natural assumption, but it might not necessarily be the case.
The folks at Patently Apple have pointed out that LG could be a potential supplier. If you recall, back in 2012 LG announced that they were working on flexible and unbreakable OLED display which could be ready by the end of 2013. This is compared to Corning’s Willow glass which the company stated might take three years before companies would be able to take advantage of it. What this means is that if you were looking forward to an iWatch type of device, Apple could always turn to LG for their glass panels which could arrive earlier than Corning. Of course this is pure speculation since such a device has yet to be officially announced, but it’s worth thinking about.
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Corning is a very old company having been around for 161 years now. The company supplies glass and other items to some of the largest companies in the technology world, including Apple. Recently some of the most consistent rumors for Apple devices have been concerning the iWatch smartwatch.
That watch has been tipped to have a curved glass screen. Before a device with a curved screen can come to market, glass suppliers have to be able to provide flexible glass. Corning has announced that it sees a three-year wait before companies start making flexible display units using its Willow glass material.
Willow glass is a type of glass that is made in a roll in a method similar to how a news press works. The flexible glass will allow manufacturers to create curved or flexible displays. Corning also notes that it is currently producing the glass and is putting forth “a lot of effort” to teach “very big name” customers how to handle the glass rolls.
Considering that Corning is a supplier for Apple, and Apple is trying to make a curved screen watch, you have to wonder if one of the first products we see using Willow glass might be the iWatch. A Corning executive did say that the company’s Willow glass would be used in some similar products this year such as a flexible barrier for solar panels or a thin film behind some touch panels. The executive noted that samples of Willow glass were sent to makers of smartphones, tablets, and TVs last summer.
[via Bloomberg]
Corning forecasts three-year wait for flexible glass gadgets is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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