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> Corning’s importance in the early days of the internet is pretty amazing and I think not very well known After the fiber optics, they repeated the performanc

> Corning’s importance in the early days of the internet is pretty amazing and I think not very well known After the fiber optics, they repeated the performance with the Gorilla Glass. See, we don’t understand it anymore today but having glass screens on “smartphones” was a revolution - we didn’t do touchscreens earlier because screens were plastic, like in the Palm Pilot; they were plastic because people pushed insensitively, people did that because the touch wasn’t sensitive at all (cursor would always land at the wrong place, or not be sensed at all). What Corning built for Apple was a glass screen, almost unbreakable, and thin enough to have an amazing touch resolution. https://www.fastcompany.com/40493737/how-cornings-crash-project-for-steve-jobs-helped-define-the-iphone https://www.fastcompany.com/40493737/how-cornings-crash-proj...

xhkkffbf 4y ago
Having broken many smartphone screens, I have to disagree with the characterization of "almost unbreakable." Sure, the screens are tougher than, say, house glass but that doesn't make it unbreakable. The number of screen repair stores at the mall pretty much testify to the accuracy of this phrase.
- eastbound 4y ago
  Before the era launched by Gorilla Glass, phones weren’t even made out of glass. So, yes, I broke several phones (Android, never iPhone despite having been less careful about those), but it’s still better glass than before.
- jaynetics 4y ago
  In earlier smartphones fractured screens were indeed very rare, because the glass did not reach so close to the edges of the phone, i.e. to the impact zones. My "Razr i" took a hell of a beating. The iPhone 3 was also quite robust. Galaxy S4, iPhone 4 were probably the turning point in terms of robustness vs aesthetics.
  - unethical_ban 4y ago
    iPhone 5 was my first fragile phone. I sat on my iPhone 4 all the time, it being in my back pocket. The 5 thinned out and I warped the frame.
  - NikolaNovak 4y ago
    Yeah, I felt that earlier phones had more flex in the shell vs innards, which absorbed the impact; my Galaxy S2 and S5 were also famous for scattering parts all over the floor upon impact (case, battery, etc:), which was hilarious but I also felt (perhaps wrongly) it helped dissipate the energy of the impact. They also tended to have a very very tiny "lip" where the shell of the case would touch surface rather than screen if you put them upside down.
abudabi123 4y ago
Corning and Apple should have a glass screen on iDevices users can replace as easy as operating a laminating machine, fax machine or photocopier. They pop the iDevice in that and 60 seconds later the screen is new again.

xhkkffbf 4y ago

Having broken many smartphone screens, I have to disagree with the characterization of "almost unbreakable." Sure, the screens are tougher than, say, house glass but that doesn't make it unbreakable. The number of screen repair stores at the mall pretty much testify to the accuracy of this phrase.

eastbound 4y ago
Before the era launched by Gorilla Glass, phones weren’t even made out of glass. So, yes, I broke several phones (Android, never iPhone despite having been less careful about those), but it’s still better glass than before.
jaynetics 4y ago
In earlier smartphones fractured screens were indeed very rare, because the glass did not reach so close to the edges of the phone, i.e. to the impact zones. My "Razr i" took a hell of a beating. The iPhone 3 was also quite robust. Galaxy S4, iPhone 4 were probably the turning point in terms of robustness vs aesthetics.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  iPhone 5 was my first fragile phone. I sat on my iPhone 4 all the time, it being in my back pocket. The 5 thinned out and I warped the frame.
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  Yeah, I felt that earlier phones had more flex in the shell vs innards, which absorbed the impact; my Galaxy S2 and S5 were also famous for scattering parts all over the floor upon impact (case, battery, etc:), which was hilarious but I also felt (perhaps wrongly) it helped dissipate the energy of the impact. They also tended to have a very very tiny "lip" where the shell of the case would touch surface rather than screen if you put them upside down.

abudabi123 4y ago

Corning and Apple should have a glass screen on iDevices users can replace as easy as operating a laminating machine, fax machine or photocopier. They pop the iDevice in that and 60 seconds later the screen is new again.