Will iPhone 6 Lack that Sapphire Screen?
It’s true that Apple has yet to even confirm the existence of the iPhone 6, but that hasn’t stopped certain rumored details becoming repeated so often that they’ve become generally accepted as fact. One of those details? That the iPhone 6 would ship with a super-tough, super-strong sapphire display. A new analyst report, however, seems to indicate that the sapphire display wasn’t quite as sure a bet as we’ve all assumed.
Written by LEDinside, an analyst subsidiary of TrendForce market research firm, the report claims that the iPhone 6 will not ship with a sapphire display due to “production issues.” The main culprit, it seems, seems to revolve around the relative difficulty in finding enough sapphire material to provide displays to iPhones:
“The sapphire material is still being applied in new generation Apple smartphones camera lenses and fingerprint recognition readers. If the iPhone 6 keeps up Apple’s previous smartphone models hot selling record, sapphire demands will be driven by the smartphone’s applications till the end of this year. However, the much anticipated sapphire cover glass remains missing from the picture. Analysis of the iPhone 6 supply chain indicates related component suppliers have to start shipping products to OEMs for assembly in June 2014 to meet the September launch date. Yet, the research institute did not discover demands for smartphone cover glass.”
However, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to buy an iPhone 6 with a sapphire display. You’ll probably just have to pay top dollar for one of a very limited selection:
“The sapphire glass version iPhone 6 will be issued in limited volumes this year, mostly because sapphire ingot manufacturers yield rates were lower than forecasts and issues involved in sapphire glass processing.”
Of course, this is a prediction from an analyst divining information through research of sapphire production and orders – one never knows just what will happen until it actually happens. Hopefully Apple fans will get the phone of their dreams by the end of the year, complete with a sapphire display. And if not? Well, chances are good that the iPhone 6 will still kill, just like every other iPhone that comes out.