Ever since Steve Jobs discovered an appreciation for the metal, the unibody MacBook for example, demand for machine aluminium electronics were never the same.
The pivotal moment for aluminum happened in October 2008 when Apple took the machined-aluminum construction from the MacBook Air it had introduced a few months earlier and extended it to its mainstream MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop family. A chain reaction was set off that allowed consumers to buy precision-milled aluminum hard drives, batteries, and even cameras.
That happened a few years back. Now, Apple will not be doing the same thing with its latest investment in manufacturing, this time focused on sapphire glass.
After sealing a deal with GT Advanced Technologies in November 2013r for the manufacture of sapphire crystals at a new plant in Arizona, Apple is now moving into the business of producing rather than merely sourcing its component materials.
This is a change in strategy, but not an unforeseeable one. As Horace Dediu points out in a 2011 analysis of Apple’s manufacturing expenditure, the Cupertino company has been on a consistent path to owning more of the tools, machinery, and equipment used in the creation of its devices. Owning the entire factory is just the next step in this transition, whose goal appears to be to extend the period of exclusivity for Apple’s hardware innovations. Without outsourcing the work to others, Apple is helping to minimize the potential for any trickle-down benefits for its competitors.
There are a number of practical distinctions between sapphire and aluminum that may also have motivated Apple’s new approach. Whereas the silvery-gray metal makes up 8 percent of the Earth’s crust and has no supply shortages, synthesizing sapphire takes a great deal of time and effort.
Harvard physicist Frans Spaepen says that the process for making sapphire windows (sapphire’s commonly used in the place of glass but is structurally different) is "already very mature and is unlikely to undergo the kind of revolution that led to cheap aluminum."
Vertu’s head of design Hutch Hutchison agrees, adding that the very qualities that make sapphire attractive as a material also make it a nightmare to work with. It’s a superbly tough and scratch-resistant material, he says, but that makes it "very difficult to cut, grind, and polish ... diamond tools have to be used for all of these processes." As a material, sapphire is thus the direct opposite of aluminum, which is prized for its malleability and versatility.
A better comparison for Hutchison is the one between sapphire and titanium. The high-strength metal was the material Apple used in its laptops before aluminum and it’s been available to smartphone makers for decades, but concerns over its cost and difficulty of processing have kept it limited to luxury products. Nokia’s Schellen tells me that a sapphire display would cost her company roughly 10 times the amount it currently spends on Gorilla Glass displays, and it’d also limit design diversity since a sapphire screen has to be flat. There’s also the issue of brittleness, as Scott Croyle informs me that when HTC does drop-tests with materials like ceramics and sapphire, "they snap and break into a gazillion pieces."
Even with all those hurdles in place, Vertu has been using sapphire crystal displays in its phones for nearly 15 years, with the current 4.3-inch Vertu Constellation including a thin layer of sapphire glass laminated over the top of its touchscreen and display assembly.
Before being contracted by Apple, GT was busy showing off sapphire display covers for iPhones, so all the building blocks for a sapphire crystal iPhone screen are in place. Then again, the Constellation’s price starts at thousands of dollars, whereas Apple’s efforts are aimed at the mass market.
The pivotal moment for aluminum happened in October 2008 when Apple took the machined-aluminum construction from the MacBook Air it had introduced a few months earlier and extended it to its mainstream MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop family. A chain reaction was set off that allowed consumers to buy precision-milled aluminum hard drives, batteries, and even cameras.
That happened a few years back. Now, Apple will not be doing the same thing with its latest investment in manufacturing, this time focused on sapphire glass.
After sealing a deal with GT Advanced Technologies in November 2013r for the manufacture of sapphire crystals at a new plant in Arizona, Apple is now moving into the business of producing rather than merely sourcing its component materials.
This is a change in strategy, but not an unforeseeable one. As Horace Dediu points out in a 2011 analysis of Apple’s manufacturing expenditure, the Cupertino company has been on a consistent path to owning more of the tools, machinery, and equipment used in the creation of its devices. Owning the entire factory is just the next step in this transition, whose goal appears to be to extend the period of exclusivity for Apple’s hardware innovations. Without outsourcing the work to others, Apple is helping to minimize the potential for any trickle-down benefits for its competitors.
There are a number of practical distinctions between sapphire and aluminum that may also have motivated Apple’s new approach. Whereas the silvery-gray metal makes up 8 percent of the Earth’s crust and has no supply shortages, synthesizing sapphire takes a great deal of time and effort.
Harvard physicist Frans Spaepen says that the process for making sapphire windows (sapphire’s commonly used in the place of glass but is structurally different) is "already very mature and is unlikely to undergo the kind of revolution that led to cheap aluminum."
Vertu’s head of design Hutch Hutchison agrees, adding that the very qualities that make sapphire attractive as a material also make it a nightmare to work with. It’s a superbly tough and scratch-resistant material, he says, but that makes it "very difficult to cut, grind, and polish ... diamond tools have to be used for all of these processes." As a material, sapphire is thus the direct opposite of aluminum, which is prized for its malleability and versatility.
A better comparison for Hutchison is the one between sapphire and titanium. The high-strength metal was the material Apple used in its laptops before aluminum and it’s been available to smartphone makers for decades, but concerns over its cost and difficulty of processing have kept it limited to luxury products. Nokia’s Schellen tells me that a sapphire display would cost her company roughly 10 times the amount it currently spends on Gorilla Glass displays, and it’d also limit design diversity since a sapphire screen has to be flat. There’s also the issue of brittleness, as Scott Croyle informs me that when HTC does drop-tests with materials like ceramics and sapphire, "they snap and break into a gazillion pieces."
Even with all those hurdles in place, Vertu has been using sapphire crystal displays in its phones for nearly 15 years, with the current 4.3-inch Vertu Constellation including a thin layer of sapphire glass laminated over the top of its touchscreen and display assembly.
Before being contracted by Apple, GT was busy showing off sapphire display covers for iPhones, so all the building blocks for a sapphire crystal iPhone screen are in place. Then again, the Constellation’s price starts at thousands of dollars, whereas Apple’s efforts are aimed at the mass market.
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