Apple supplier GT Advanced Technologies has begun shipping sapphire to Apple’s manufacturing partners in China.
The sapphire is bound for future Apple products, but it is unclear if the current shipments will end up in the iPhone 6, iWatch or both.
Apple currently uses sapphire in the home button on the iPhone 5S in order to facilitate the fingerprint scanner.
GT Advanced Technologies is based in Arizona. And according to UBS Securities analyst Stephen Chin, supply checks have revealed that quantities of the material have begun being shipped to China.
“Checks find [GT Advanced Technologies’] Arizona factory likely [started] producing sapphire last month,” Chin wrote in a research note.
“Our own checks found that for the first time GT shipped some small quantities of sapphire made in its Arizona fab to one of Apple’s partners in China who is in charge of making sapphire covers.”
Apple recently signed a $578 million deal with GT Advanced Technologies to produce sapphire at Apple’s plant in Arizona. GT Advanced Technologies owns and operates the furnaces that create the sapphire.
It is currently unclear what the sapphire will be used in, although the current speculation is that the iPhone 6 will move away from Gorilla Glass and instead opt to use sapphire for the whole screen.
Whether Cupertino decides on a sapphire screen for an upcoming wearable device, be it an iWatch or fitness-focused iBand, remains to be seen.
GT Advanced Technologies and Apple, predictably enough, have both declined to comment on these latest developments.
Source:9to5Mac
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