Next to diamond in terms of hardness, sapphire is currently used on the home button and camera lens cover of the iPhone 5S. According to head of the design wing Hutch Hutchison of Vertu, a UK-based firm, not only does sapphire costs expensively but also producing it would need a lot of time and energy.
"Sapphire crystal is an incredibly tough, high quality material and this makes it perfect for luxury mobile phone screens. It is virtually impossible to damage and it will maintain a perfect, scratch free finish for many years." He further adds that "It can take two weeks to grow each boule and the yield from each is low. It is also very difficult to cut, grind and polish; diamond tools have to be used for all of these processes," said Hutchison
Several speculations have suggested that Apple is incorporating sapphire in the upcoming iPhone 6 after the company acquired the plants in Massachusetts and Arizona that would make the hardened, artificial glass. However, there are no signs showing that the material was sent to the manufacturing plants in time for the anticipated launch in September.
The analysis came from Trendforce's LEDinside which added that there's "disappointingly low yield rates of sapphire glass, but the material might be used for later Apple smartphones."
According to the research company, there has been a trend of dropped prices among sapphire ingot, patterned sapphire substrate, and substrate in July 2014. Some product prices were also down by five percent to ten percent Quarter on Quarter. These would include the 2-inch ingot prices (down to $3.5-$4.0) and the 4-inch ingot prices (down to $15-$16). Prices for the 2-inch sapphire substrate remained at $6.8-$7.2 while the 4-inch sapphire substrate was priced at $29-$31.
Upon analyzing the iPhone 6 supply chain, the component suppliers should have started shipping products to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and have them assembled in June 2014 in order to meet the product's launch date in September. The research company wasn't able to detect any demands for the smartphone cover glass.
The iPhone 6 is said to come in two variants, the smaller 4.7-inch model and slightly bigger 5.5-inch model. The larger variant is rumored to feature an NFC chip that would generate faster Wi-Fi ac speeds. If this is true, it will be a totally new feature for an iPhone. While the 4.7-inch is launching in September, its bigger sibling is scheduled to hit the stores in December.
