Thursday, August 14, 2014

Sapphire Applications and Market: From LED to Consumer Electronics

The sapphire industry recently ended a long period of depressed pricing and achieved US$936 million in revenue for wafer products in 2013. Recovery was helped by an increase in LED demand due to accelerating adoption in general lighting and a resilient LCD backlight market. But the saving grace was new consumer electronic (CE) applications: camera lens and fingerprint reader covers, mostly driven by Apple in 2013. Adoption at other vendors is progressing at a slower pace than anticipated in 2014. LG even reversed the trend with its flagship cellphone: its G2 model featured a sapphire lens cover but the G3 uses glass. However, we are optimistic for the mid-term with adoption increasing in Taiwan and China. In addition, new applications such as LED filaments could further increase sapphire consumption. Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications" web site. View the report: Sapphire Applications and Market: From LED to Consumer Electronics.

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