If you haven’t heard of Gorilla Glass, it’s time you do.
Because chances are, you own a piece of digital equipment that features the extra-strength, break-proof, scratch resistant technology that has, more than once, saved you the burden of a broken gadget – and hence some big bucks.
The glass, courtesy of the company Corning, has gained enough esteem to now be quite famous amongst both the tech savvy and not-so-savvy owners of precious electronic products. Even Steve Jobs praised the screen-covering splendor to no end before his passing. Since then, Corning’s Gorilla Glass blesses more than 1 billion devices across the globe – and the announcement regarding those numbers was proudly declared in Corning’s most recent quarterly earnings release.
Apple should probably hold an entire gala celebrating the ape-strong technology, because it sure owes Corning an abundance of kudos.
The glass is a chief reason why Apple has practically dumbfounded the tech world by delivering a huge inventory of devices that can endure being shoved into pockets chockfull of keys, change and other items that could very well be the cause for scratching up the gadget to the point of irreversible malfunction. The litany of companies that use the technology to safeguard their products is never-ending. Amongst them are Acer, Asus Nokia, Dell, HP, HTC, LG, Lenovo, Sony….need I go on? (Because if I did, I’d bet my smartphone you wouldn’t have time to read another article before bedtime.)
To put it in numbers for you, Corning’s riches are as follows as a result of the ape-strong glass. In 2011, Corning came close to 700 million dollars in sales. In third quarter sales, 2012, the fortune totaled about $363 million which represents an average of a 21% increase in profit every year.
It hasn’t however always been hearts and flowers for Corning.
Rather, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster for the firm. While entire sales were up 7% from the second quarter, that percentage dropped two percent per year at one point. The company struggled so badly, in fact, that Corning had to resort to cutting jobs in order to reduce overhead costs, particularly due to its most feeble departments like telecommunications and environmental divisions.
Also in its latest release, Corning explained that Gorilla Glass is a chief profit producer going forward, and the company has plans to release an even better product they’ve dubbed Willow Glass. The new glass is described by the company as being an “ultra-slim flexible glass” created exclusively to even further boost the possibilities of what consumer electronics are now currently capable of in the way of strength and endurance. To exemplify, Corning broadcasted a video in which it was demonstrated that the new Willow Glass has the potential of enhancing LCD and OLED panel development, while radically morphing the design of smartphones to come. The new glass would essentially make creating curved glass surfaces child’s play for technology companies – and that would mean that more affordable production could very well be a certainty that is just over the horizon.
Charles Lessig writes for a company that specializes in pest control Atlanta. He also writes about tech topics that are relevant to today’s on-the-go end user.