[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7jw5ok9z54[/youtube]
Apple boasts that it uses Corning's technology in its iDevices to build the screens of the terminals we use every day. Even so, an iDevice cracks quite easily when it is dropped on a hard surface, but the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 could be much more resistant thanks to the Gorilla Glass 2 technology. Those from Corning boast that they managed to bring a product 20% thinner than the previous one but just as resistant and the difference of 0.2 mm in thickness will matter a lot for any manufacturer of smartphones and tablets.
In the video clip above we have a resistance test done by the people from Engadget at CES 2012 for Gorilla Glass 2 and noticed that the new model produced by Corning withstands the test conditions without problems. It is not yet known which manufacturer will use the new technology, but I hope that Apple will do it.
Leaving aside the second version of Gorilla Glass, below is an excerpt from the authorized biography of Steve Jobs in which it is described an event in which Steve Jobs convinced the CEO of Corning to start the production of the first panels made using Gorilla Glass technology.
..a really great CEO in this country, Wendell Weeks, who runs Corning Glass. Steve Jobs when he does the iPhone decides he doesn't want plastic, he wants really tough glass on it, and they don't make a glass that can be tough like they want. And finally somebody says to him, because they were making all of the glass in China for the fronts of the stores, says, "You ought to check with the people at Corning. They're kind of smart there." So, he flies to Corning, New York, sits there in front of the CEO, Wendell Weeks, and says, "This is what I want, a glass that can do this." So, Wendell Weeks says, "We once created a type of process that created something called Gorilla Glass." And Steve said, "No, no, no. Here's how you make really strong glass." And Wendell says, "Wait a minute, I know how to make glass. Shut up and listen to me." And Steve, to his credit, shuts up and listens, and Wendell Weeks describes a process that makes Gorilla Glass. And Steve then says, “Fine. In six months I want enough of it to make–whatever it is–a million iPhones.” And Wendell says, "I'm sorry, we've actually never made it. We don't have a factory to make it. This was a process we developed, but we never had a manufacturing plant to do it." And Steve looks at him and says what he said to Woz, 20, 30 years earlier: "Don't be afraid, you can do it." Wendell Weeks tells me… Because I flew to Corning, because I just wanted to hear this story. Wendell Weeks tells me, "I just sat there and looked at the guy. He kept saying, 'Don't be afraid. You can do this.'”
WI: Wendell Weeks said he called his plant in Kentucky that was making glass for LCD screens, and said, "Start the process now, and make Gorilla Glass." That's why every iPhone in your pocket and iPad has Gorilla Glass made by Corning. This is the reality distortion field that is, I submit, part and parcel of a guy who doesn't believe the rules apply to him, even the rule about never cutting in line.
AL: And of course Corning uses this in their marketing now, they market Gorilla Glass for other customers.
