Apple Deal With GTAT Could Produce Sapphire Crystal for 50 Million 5-Inch iPhone Displays Annually

Apple's new manufacturing deal with GT Advanced Technologies will boost production capacity allowing the company to produce enough sapphire material to make 5-inch sapphire screen covers for 33.79-50.56 million iPhones per year.

US$578 million can be used to procure 1,930-2,890 sapphire growing furnaces for a monthly production of 5.28-7.90 million mm of 2-inch-equivalent sapphire ingots, Digitimes Research indicated. Such a volume of sapphire ingots could be used to make screen covers for 33.79-50.56 million 5-inch iPhones a year, accounting for 17.8-26.6% of the estimated 190 million iPhones to be shipped in 2014.

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