14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is making considerable strivings to secure enough sapphire for its next-generation iPhone, according to a new report. The company is said to have paid hundreds of millions solely to secure the manufacturing of the ultra-hard material.
IBT reports that the Cupertino giant, looking forward to next year’s iPhone refresh, “recently paid a total of $578 million — more than half a billion dollars — to GT Advanced Technologies to speed up ‘the development of its next generation, large capacity ASF furnaces to deliver low cost, high volume manufacturing of sapphire material’.”
The quote is attributed either to the Marketing Director at GT Advanced Technologies, Jeff Nestel-Patt, or to the Vice President of Business Development and Product Management at GT Advanced Technologies, Linda Reinhard.
Both executives are cited, but IBT doesn’t say which of the two people blurted out the sum, or even if the information really does stem from GTAT.