The next set of smartphones and tablets to hit the market may have screens manufactured from a human-made version of sapphire. The manufactured substance is already used in military vehicles and is close to unbreakable.

According to a report published in the MIT Technology Review, the smartphone screen wouldn’t break when it was dropped, and would withstand scratches from the plethora of objects exclusively provided by the universe to ruin your smartphone’s screen. Eric Virey, an analyst from the market research firm Yole Dévelopment said in the report,

I’m convinced that some (manufacturers) will start testing the water and release some high-end smartphones using sapphire in 2013.

Apple currently uses this manufactured sapphire glass on the camera lens of its iPhone 5. The only thing holding back the widespread implementation of the glass is the price. A sapphire display on a typical smartphone would cost $30 (R279), compared to the $3 (R27) spent on the current batch of Corning’s Gorilla Glass used on smartphones.

The MIT report suggests that the manufactured sapphire glass would be three times stronger than Gorilla Glass.

It is unclear to us if this could provide better overall performance than actual glass. There also are the questions about cost and product weight that must be addressed before sapphire would be a serious consideration for mass market applications.

Gorilla Glass can be molded into curved designs and multiple shapes without losing its strength. The same is not certain for the manufactured sapphire.

Virey said the price of manufactured sapphire may drop to $20 over a few years, which could lead consumers giving the manufactured sapphire a try. Kevin Bullis, senior editor at MIT Technology Review wrote in the report.

If costs can get low enough, these manufacturers may have a large market waiting for them. But they’ll have to continue to contend with the incumbent technologies — Gorilla Glass and similar materials offered by other manufacturers.

[Source: CNN News]