Although Apple's iPhone 6 series did not meet market expectations and used sapphire as a protective cover, which cooled the introduction of sapphire into smartphones, it has recently been reported in the market that the new 5.7-inch Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship phone may use a sapphire protective cover and was announced at the 2015 CES exhibition.
Taiwanese sapphire substrate manufacturers stated that they had indeed heard this rumor before. However, the current production capacity of sapphire for large-scale introduction of 5-inch mobile phone protective covers is still insufficient. However, with the Apple Watch that will be released in 2015 taking the lead in introducing sapphire material, it is expected to significantly expand the export of sapphire applications.
The sapphire substrate factory pointed out that since the LED industry is in the traditional off-season from the fourth quarter to the first quarter of the following year, it seems that demand is still weak in January 2015. It is expected to gradually pick up around the Lunar New Year. With the rapid growth of LED lighting in 2015, Sapphire's original LED market fundamentals are not weak.
With the expected launch of Apple Watch, brand manufacturers interested in following up are gearing up, and market demand is expected to increase significantly in the second quarter.
As smartphone brand manufacturers focus on product differentiation, sapphire protective covers have become a hot topic in the market in 2014. As the market expects that the iPhone may introduce sapphire covers, in early 2014, the Japanese major manufacturer Kyocera and the American telecommunications company Verizon have cooperated to launch the first mobile phone model with a sapphire protective cover.
Kyocera sapphire products are produced in-house. Later, mainland mobile phone brands Vivo and Huawei also launched smartphones with sapphire covers. However, there have been rumors in the market recently that Xiaomi Mi 5 may also use sapphire covers.
It is rumored that Xiaomi has recently been under pressure from mainland brands such as Meizu to catch up. In order to regain some ground, it is speculated that the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship model will use a 5.7-inch screen with a panel resolution of 2K level. The protective outer cover may even introduce sapphire as a topic.
Previously, it was reported in the industry that Korean sapphire suppliers have received requests from Xiaomi to speed up supply in order to meet the delivery schedule at the end of the year. However, according to Xiaomi Technology’s 2014 mobile phone sales target of 60 million units, Xiaomi Mi 4 will not be ready due to initial production. Insufficient performance caused shipments to decline in the third quarter of 2014. However, based on the 19 million units shipped by Xiaomi Mi 4 in the fourth quarter, if Xiaomi Mi 5 adopts a sapphire protective cover, the existing sapphire production capacity may not be able to cope with it, and it is expected that it will be sold in a limited edition.
The size of smartphones continues to increase, which does not cause production difficulties for existing tempered glass. However, sapphire is manufactured by artificial crystal growth. If the crystal pillars are to be cut into a protective cover with the size and thickness of a mobile phone, the size of the crystal pillars needs to be enlarged. Not only does the growth time increase, but the growth yield of the crystal pillars also decreases. In addition, the processing and cutting technology also needs to be changed, which greatly increases the difficulty and the cost is bound to remain high.
In addition, although the material properties of sapphire have advantages in surface hardness, it is also highly brittle. As a result, the bending resistance test cannot be compared with that of strengthened glass, and it is also difficult to meet the needs of traditional digging and recessing. The industry believes that there are still concerns about the use characteristics of sapphire material when it is introduced into mobile phone protective glass.
ANNA