Sapphire displays may replace Gorilla Glass screens on smartphones

If until now touchscreens were made of Gorilla Glass, from now on they could be made of sapphire.

Corning Gorilla Glass has been used to make displays as durable as possible. But there’s another material which may be considered thanks to the fact that it’s cheaper, on the long run, than the old material used so far. Not only that, but it will bring more durability from now on.

Sapphire has long been employed on vehicles belonging to the military as transparent armor. This material is not as hard as a diamond is. However, studies show that it’s way better than Gorilla Glass in terms of resistance to scratches and strength.

According to Eric Virey, an analyst for market research firm Yole Développement, the sapphire looks like it will be the material of choice for future smartphones where major brands are concerned. Look at Apple: their iPhone 5 uses this material for its camera.

GT Advanced Technologies is hard at work these days. They want to make the sapphire cheaper to manufacture. If that works, the Gorilla Glass may have a rival hot on its tracks faster than presumed.

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But that’s not the only thing they’re concentrating on: their second aim is to make sapphire layers extremely thin, so that future handsets can use them without a problem.

As soon as word got out about sapphire presumed to be featured on next generation smartphones, not only the GT Advanced Technologies became interested in it, but also various other names around the globe. Sapphire technology in South Korea and Rubicon Technologies in the US are some of them. They also wish to make the cost of manufacturing this material a lot more affordable.

Until something certain happens, Corning Gorilla Glass sticks to its legacy thanks to the new extra resistant and strong version they launched not too long ago.