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Digitimes Research: US$30 to be competitive price for 5.5-inch sapphire covers to be adopted by smartphone vendors other than Apple in 2015

Jessie Lin, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Whether major smartphone vendors follow Apple to adopt sapphire-screen covers will hinge on cost, and US$30 for a 5.5-inch sapphire-cover will be a competitive price in 2015, according to Digitimes Research.

US-based GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) will supply sapphire for making screen covers for the new iPhone, Digitimes Research indicated. Based on GTAT's about 2,500 crystal-growing furnaces and mature crystal-growing process (for example, a 115kg sapphire ingot and linear slicing), GTAT can produce enough sapphire to make 45 million 5.5-inch covers in 2015.

South Korea-, China- and Taiwan-based smartphone vendors have begun testing sapphire screen covers, Digitimes Research noted. However, the price of sapphire ingots and wafers in 2015 will not drop significantly on year.