Apple’s making sapphire. Or rather, GT Advanced Technologies is handling the production in its Arizona plant, but these materials are destined for Apple products. The only questions, really, have concerned just which devices might end up with sapphire, and what it would be used for. And while it might be nice to see sapphire protecting the displays on all of Apple’s upcoming gear, could there really be enough to go around? We’ve already heard rumors that production issues could limit the availability of certain models, but a new analyst report says we shouldn’t be fretting, and claims that Apple has more than enough sapphire to go around.
Supply chain estimates based on the numbers of furnaces GTAT is running, and the output from each, suggest that Apple won’t have any problems bringing sapphire screens to both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6, with plenty left over for iWatch production.
There’s no mention of whether this abundance might tempt Apple to start preparing sapphire screens for a future iPad model – and certainly that would be a much more expensive proposition – but we could well see sapphire sweep across all of Apple’s smaller devices.
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