As rumored yesterday, looks like Apple is indeed planning an expansion at its Mesa, Arizona plant to boost sapphire output ahead of the next-generation iPhone production. According to a new report Friday morning, the company is looking to double the number of high-tech furnaces that make sapphire boules in bulk.
Whereas previous records claimed Apple and its partner GT Advanced would use about 950 furnaces at the site, sources are now saying the firms want to equip the facility with some 1,700 furnaces. That could mean bolstering of yields to increase the plant's output beyond an estimated 100 to 200 million sapphire displays per year.
Apple has poured a cool $576 million into the Mesa facility to secure an exclusive, multi-year output of sapphire products. It's widely believed Tim Cook & Co. have found a way of strengthening the next iPhone's screen by applying a thin layer of sapphire material on top of the handset's cover glass...