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Comment by rtwtlkj | Hacker News Reader

>>There’s one caveat: according to a market analyst, a sheet of Gorilla Glass costs around $3, while the same piece of sapphire glass would cost $30

I'm already paying a lot of money for the smartphone what difference does it make another $30-$50 dollars. Especially considering that is far more expensive to replace the screen of the phone and in a lot of cases you'll have to replace the entire phone which will cost you a couple hundred dollars.

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$30 extra in the bill of materials probably means an extra $50 in the wholesale price. And that means and extra $100 in the retail price. Which would result in significantly lower volumes, and start a feedback cycle that'd further raise prices.

extra $100 in the retail price amortized 24 months = $4/month on a cell plan that subsidizes the phone purchase.

even less when you prorate the difference in retail price by the "up front" cost of the phone ($50 or $199 or whatever)

Admittedly this is the most unscientific of sources, but this Yahoo Answers -ducks- post claims Sapphires have a hardness of 9 out of 10, where 10 is diamond. That leads me to believe it'd be harder to crack than glass.

I believe hardness has more to do with scratching than cracking; e.g. plastic is harder to crack than glass, but softer.

Indeed, cracking is generally inversely related with hardness. Harder things are easier to crack than softer things.

Sapphire has, by definition, 9/10 on Moh's hardness scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness

(Sapphire is just Corundum that isn't red or pink)

Specifically, it's corundum that's blue because it's got titanium and iron impurities. Anyone trying to sell you a "white sapphire" (or this "sapphire" glass) is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I can see why, though - it's an easier sell than calling it just corundum.

wyager and svachalek are right, but the 9/10 harness was confirmed by the OP video. It's pretty darn scratch resistant.

Hardness only determines how difficult something is to scratch. Resistance to cracking is much more complex. For example, I could easily smash a diamond with a steel hammer. But I could also use that diamond to slowly grind the hammer to dust.

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