Apple Invests $ 45 million To Create New Gorilla Glass Screen For iPhone

Illustration of iPhone (Tylor Lastovich / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Apple again injected funds worth $ 45 million or equivalent to IDR 639 billion to gorilla glass screen protector maker Corning Incorporated. The investment is rumored to be producing a new screen for the iPhone.

Quoted from The Verge, the phone manufacturer aims to expand Corning's production capacity in the US and drive research and development into innovative new technologies that also support durability and long-lasting product life.

The investment comes from Apple's $ 5 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, which was established in 2017 to invest in manufacturing and infrastructure jobs in the US related to Apple products such as the iPhone.

To date, Corning has received 450 million from the fund. While the incoming funds previously played a role in the development of ceramic shields, the new screen materials make the iPhone 12 lineup more resistant to falling than previous iPhone models.

"This new material is made possible by the high-temperature crystallization step that forms nano-crystals inside the glass matrix. The special crystals are kept small enough that the material is transparent. The resulting material forms the revolutionary Ceramic Shield, which Apple used to create a new front cover featured on the iPhone in the iPhone 12 lineup", Apple said.

Since then, Gorilla Glass has been refined to make it more durable and appears not only on iPhones but in many other mobile products such as Samsung and others.

"Before Ceramic Shield, embedded crystals traditionally influenced material transparency, an important factor for the front cover of iPhone because so many features, including screens, cameras, and sensors for Face ID, required optical clarity to work", he added.

Apple's relationship with Corning occurred at the launch of the first iPhone when a last-minute change to the product before launch replaced a scratch-prone plastic screen with a new type of scratch-resistant glass called Corning's Gorilla Glass.

Furthermore, Apple has not said how Corning will use this new investment. Unknown, Corning is working on a new form of durable and bendable glass, likely suitable for future folding iPhones.