Corning Gorilla Glass has taken over the smartphone world. The scratch resistant display has been in every Apple iPhone since 2007, and counts Amazon, HP, Dell, Google HTC and Samsung has loyal clients. Gorilla Glass accounts for 39% of Corning’s revenue and last quarter they generated over 2.40 billion dollars.
Gorilla Glass is in its 4th generation and the company has just dropped a bombshell. The company has developed new technology called Project Phire, which combines the strength of its existing Gorilla Glass with ultra scratch-resistance like that of sapphire.
Corning Glass president James Clappin who announced the product at an investors conference said “We told you last year that sapphire was great for scratch performance but didn’t fare well when dropped. So, we created a product that offers the same superior damage resistance and drop performance of Gorilla Glass 4 with scratch resistance that approaches sapphire.”
Apple is one of Corning’s biggest companies and the company planned to move away from Gorilla Glass with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, switching instead to sapphire produced by GT Advanced. The deal wasn’t able to get done due to production issues  and the two sides dissolved their partnership soon thereafter.
Corning blending the scratch resistant nature of Sapphire with the sturdiness of Gorilla Glass should be a boon to the smartphone industry. It will allow the next generation of phones to be more durable but also employ an improved viewing experience.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.