Crystal which can be made industrially
A $578m deal signed between Apple and GTAT in November 2013 looked as though it would not only bring sapphire screens to iPhones, but also create thousands of jobs in the US, salving a sore point with legislators critical of Apple’s use of foreign assembly for almost all its products, especially the iPhone and iPad.
But it ended in October 2014 with GTAT filing for bankruptcy, hundreds of people put out of work, and GTAT’s chief executive and chief operating officer facing questions about insider dealing after they sold millions of dollars worth of GTAT stock before Apple’s iPhone announcement in September.
As quickly became clear, the new iPhones don’t have sapphire screens, leading some to ask if the stock sales were triggered by insider knowledge about GTAT’s worsening financial position.
GTAT’s downfall also gives a tantalising glimpse into what might have been. Apple wanted sapphire – a super-hard, very transparent crystal which can be made industrially and has to be cut with diamond-coated wire – for camera lenses and the Touch ID sensor on iPhones and iPads, and also for its forthcoming Watch, due for release in spring 2015.