Sapphire Display Cost Limiting 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Production: Report

Recently, a report claimed that the alleged iPhone 6 with 5.5-inch display has been delayed due to battery cell supply constraints. It now seems nothing is going Apple's way when it comes to the next iPhone's production.

A new report claims that due to use of costly sapphire as a display material; the alleged iPhone 6 with 5.5-inch display will have limited production. GforGames from a Weibo post which cited supply chain sources notes that the rumoured 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models will have limited production volume of 10 million units.

The report, further claims that due to the use of the sapphire display, which it claims costs CNY 1,743, the alleged 5.5-inch iPhone 6 cost will go sky-high to CNY 8,000 which will be around the price of the iPhone 5s 64GB model which retails at CNY 6,888 in China.

It's worth noting that Corning, the makers of the Gorilla Glass screen for devices such as smartphones and laptop screens among others, had claimed that its Gorilla Glass was much cheaper and stronger than sapphire.

Contradicting the current report, an earlier leak had suggested that GT Advanced Technologies received sapphire crystal display tool components from Apple, which were said to be enough to manufacture between 100 and 200 million 5-inch iPhone displays in Arizona.

It is being speculated that Apple will use sapphire displays for only for its smaller devices, such as the iPod and rumoured upcoming iWatch.

Reports have for while been indicating that Apple might finally enter the screen size battle with the launch of the iPhone 6, and its rumoured two display size variants - 5.5-inch and 4.7-inch. On the design, the next iPhones' models are said to include bezels that will be 10-20 percent narrow than the the iPhone 5s, while the thickness will be 6.5-7mm.

A recent report suggested that the next generation iPhone would come with curved edges accompanied by curved display glass.

Prior to this, an alleged iPhone 6 mock-up tipped rounded edges and new placement of power button.