Edition Reuters, referring to the publication Electronic Times, reports that the company Xiaomi, which the media is often referred to as "Chinese Apple", decided to join the ranks of manufacturers who intend to launch a smartphone with a sapphire crystal as display protection. She asked the South Korean manufacturers to provide it with a batch of 50,000 sapphire glass to be used in the new premium device.
Sapphire crystal is used by phone manufacturers have long (for camera lenses, for example), but to cover their screens it has not yet reached due to high cost of production. To date, no company has in its portfolio of mass device with such a feature. First, according to rumors, may be Apple. But then sources differ. According to the latest sapphire can get only the most popular modifications iPhone 6, possibly with a storage capacity of 128 GB.
Xiaomi is going to be equipped with this component new top of the range vehicles, which will release a limited edition. Apparently, it will be 50,000 units. No data on these devices yet.
Analysts predict that by 2016 the production of sapphire glass reaches 84 km (width of the panel 2 inches) to 32 km in 2012, and 54 km in the current year. Earlier, the Chinese company Huawei has hinted at the use of sapphire screen in future smartphones.