We have been hearing a lot about Apple’s plans for sapphire lately. Rumored plans, to be exact. While Apple has not denied their involvement in GT Advanced Technology’s sapphire plant in Arizona, the exact use of the material is still being speculated on.
According to the rumors, some claim that the sapphire will be used in Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6 where it will be applied to the display of the phone. Others claim that it will be used in the company’s upcoming iWatch, but in a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was quoted as saying that the Arizona facility was being used for a “secret project” that he couldn’t talk about.
This came about during Apple’s Q&A session with shareholders, where Cook stated that the Cupertino company was working on “great new products” that could be viewed as “extensions of what we’re already doing,” whatever that means, along with “things that you can’t see.”
Cook also stressed on the importance of keeping things a secret, to the point where even talking about the future could give the competition a roadmap of where Apple could be headed, and simply because Apple was “getting ripped off left, right and sideways.”
As it stands, sapphire is being used in current-gen iPhones as the lens cover for the camera on the back, and in the case of the iPhone 5s, it is also used as a cover for the Touch ID sensor to prevent it from getting damaged. We guess based on Cook’s rather vague statements, we’ll just have to wait and see what Apple has in store for us.
In the meantime what do you guys think? Will sapphire be used in the iPhone 6’s display, the iWatch, both, or maybe something else entirely?
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