Few things are more frustrating than scratching the display of your expensive smartphone or tablet. The rest of the device could be banged and bruised, but a blemish on its screen changes everything. The window to your apps, videos, and books is suddenly tarnished. Corning is moving one step closer to solving this problem, with a new and improved version of its Gorilla Glass.
Third time's a charm
Corning will officially unveil Gorilla Glass 3 next week at CES 2013, but a press release has already let the ape out of the bag. The company claims that the new edition is improved at the molecular level, adding a feature called Native Damage Resistance (NDR).
Last year's Gorilla Glass 2 was thinner, but not necessarily stronger than the original Gorilla Glass. For this third edition, the focus is back on increasing strength. Corning says that, compared to Gorilla Glass 2, Gorilla Glass 3 is three times more scratch-resistant, 40 percent less likely to gather visible scratches, and 50 percent better at retaining its strength after becoming flawed.
Devices
Gorilla Glass has probably been used in all of Apple's iOS devices, dating back to the first iPhone (Tim Cook often mentions that their glass is manufactured in Kentucky, USA, home to a Corning facility). Gorilla Glass 3 could easily make it into Apple's 2013 iPhones and iPads, as well as numerous Android and Windows Phone devices.
We're still years away from having devices with "unbreakable" screens, but Corning is making strides in that direction.