As you might have heard, Apple seems to have plans for sapphire in future products. As it stands, sapphire is chiefly used in the lens protecting the camera on the iPhone and the TouchID cover on the iPhone 5s, but beyond that we’re not sure what else Apple might have planned, but whatever it is, it sure seems important because according to documents that were recently made public, it revealed that Apple and their manufacturing partner, GT Advanced Technologies, are looking to push for an opening of an advanced sapphire plant in Arizona by the end of February.
This plant will apparently handle a new “critical subcomponent” that will be incorporated into a future Apple product. Which product exactly remains to be seen, but it seems to be pretty important otherwise Apple would be not pushing for its opening as soon as possible. Some have speculated that the use of sapphire could be incorporated into future iPhones as part of its display. In fact recent rumors have suggested that Foxconn, Apple’s manufacturing partner in China, has actually built 100 such prototypes. It is possible that Apple is rushing this in order to get components ready for their next iPhone, which at the moment is rumored to have a much larger display. As to what Apple wants the sapphire for remains a mystery, but you can be sure that we are pretty damn curious.
Filed in . Read more about iPhone.