Attacking domestic smartphones Why is Huawei setting Kunlun Glass on fire while Corning is not popular anymore?

Behind the Demise of Corning The Chaotic Battle of Huawei and Kunlun Glass in the Domestic Smartphone Market

[Mobile China] Smartphones are symbols and necessities of our time. They connect people with each other, with the world, and with the future. In this field, domestic mobile phones have been seen as low-end, cheap, and knock-off products, while foreign brands have occupied the high-end, expensive, and innovative market.

However, in recent years, with the relentless efforts and continuous innovation of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, this situation is undergoing a tremendous change. Domestic phones are gradually shedding their previous image of being low-end and affordable, achieving great success in the domestic market. With their impressive overall performance and affordable prices, they are also demonstrating strong competitiveness in the international market.

Domestic phones are able to achieve a dual advantage in terms of quality and price, thanks not only to the efforts of domestic mobile phone manufacturers themselves but also to the increasingly mature domestic supply chain support. Not long ago, many domestic phone manufacturers liked to promote Samsung screens as an important selling point because it was the industry benchmark and an indisputable leader. However, in recent years, with the rise of domestic screen suppliers such as BOE and China Star Optoelectronics, the focus of press conferences has also shifted to domestic screens. The same situation has occurred with phone glass. Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which once dominated the flagship phone market, has been outranked by domestic phone glass, with Huawei’s Kunlun Glass being the most famous representative.

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If screens and glass panels are not representative enough, the process of domesticating high-precision components like CMOS sensors and chips can better represent the direction of domestication of phone components. Even without considering the re-emergence of the Kirin chip, there have been many domestic self-developed chips in areas such as charging, gaming, and imaging chips. In the field of phone CMOS, Hawkeye, which used to only assist Sony, has also begun to shine and become a new choice for more and more domestic flagship phone main cameras. And as for the less noticeable components like phone motors and speakers, they can be said to be a territory owned by domestic manufacturers. Nowadays, most domestic phones’ motors and speakers are largely supplied by RiTeng Technology.

The rapid development of domestic mobile phones cannot be achieved without the help and support of these domestic supply chains. In the current increasingly fierce international technology competition, the localization of phone components is an important issue facing phone manufacturers. This time, Mobile China will focus on the theme of “The Rise of Domestic Mobile Phones” to depict the current development status of domestic phones, with this article mainly focusing on “Phone Screens”.

Corning Gorilla Glass

Corning Gorilla Glass was once a hit in the world of smartphones due to its durability and scratch resistance, becoming a standard feature for flagship models. However, with the rise of Kunlun Glass, Corning Gorilla Glass seems to have gradually faded from consumers’ view, and phone manufacturers no longer use it as a selling point in their product launches.

Before the introduction of Corning Gorilla Glass, smartphone screens commonly used transparent PC or acrylic materials. Although these materials were resilient and durable, they had one fatal flaw – they were prone to scratching, which significantly impacted user experience.

With the advent of smartphones, the logic of phone operations shifted from physical buttons to touchscreens. Glass materials, with their high hardness, abrasion resistance, and excellent visual appeal, replaced the previous two types of screen cover materials.

iPhone with Corning Gorilla Glass

In 2007, at the request of Apple, Corning developed a thin, scratch-resistant, and tough glass panel for the iPhone, which became the first generation of Corning Gorilla Glass. The first generation of Corning Gorilla Glass was used by Steve Jobs in the iPhone 4, and with the success of the iPhone 4 series, Corning Gorilla Glass, made from alkali-aluminosilicate, gained fame and became a popular product in the screen protection industry. Many phone manufacturers highly praised this glass.

Development History of Corning Gorilla Glass

According to the official website of Corning Gorilla Glass, in 2016, after the official release of Corning’s fifth generation of Gorilla Glass, major phone manufacturers including Huawei and Xiaomi have successively adopted Corning’s fifth generation Gorilla Glass screen as a major promotional highlight for their new flagship smartphones.

In short, Corning Gorilla Glass used to be very popular.

However, since 2019, Huawei flagship phones – the P30 series, Mate30 series, and P40 series – no longer advertise using Corning Gorilla Glass as a selling point.

As a comparison, the Corning Gorilla Glass official website shows that the Huawei Mate10 series, released in October 2017, the Huawei P20 Pro, released in April 2018, and the Huawei Mate20 Pro, released in October 2018, all promoted their screens with Corning Gorilla Glass as the highlight.

However, starting from 2019 until now, Huawei no longer advertises Corning Gorilla Glass as a highlight. The P40 series and Mate30 series phones do not have this selling point. The official website shows that the screen highlight for the Huawei P40 Pro is a four-curve overflow screen, supporting a 90Hz screen refresh rate and DCI-P3 HDR, etc. The screen highlight for the Mate30 Pro is an 88° ultra-curved OLED wraparound screen, with the picture flowing beyond the screen.

On the other hand, Huawei was the first to adopt and popularize Kunpeng glass.

In the second half of 2022, Huawei released the new Mate50 series. These new models use technologies such as Beidou satellite messaging and variable aperture. As for the screen, the Mate50 series uses a brand new “Kunpeng” glass. According to official information, the Kunpeng glass used in the Mate50 Pro has obtained the industry’s first Swiss SGS five-star drop resistance certification, making the phone 10 times more resistant to drops than ordinary glass.

The Huawei Mate50 series is equipped with Kunpeng glass

After the release of the Mate50 series, Kunpeng glass instantly became the focus of industry attention and even became one of the main reasons for the strong price of the Mate50 Pro, exceeding its original selling price. Initially, the Mate50 Pro was in high demand on major platforms and couldn’t even be purchased with a premium of 700 yuan. Some sellers even took advantage of the opportunity to launch Kunpeng tempered glass.

It is worth mentioning that the Kunpeng glass used in the Mate50 Pro is a genuinely domestically produced glass. According to relevant information, the Kunpeng glass used in the Huawei Mate50 Pro comes from Chongqing Xinjing Special Glass Co., Ltd. The company was founded in 2014, and in the past 8 years, it has invested more than 1.9 billion yuan in research and development.

In addition to Huawei, more and more smartphone manufacturers are using other materials for screens. For example, Honor has used “Giant Rhino Glass” on both the Honor Magic4 Ultimate Edition and the Honor Magic5 Ultimate Edition. This glass is comparable to Corning Gorilla Glass in terms of drop resistance. Meizu has introduced a new kind of dual microcrystalline glass material called “Titan Glass” on the Meizu 20 series.

Meizu Titan Glass

Redmi has also released a “Phone Ice Cooling Tempered Film.” According to the official statement, this tempered film uses glass as the base material with light entropy coating technology, and it can reduce the highest temperature of the phone screen by 5℃ under direct sunlight. It has a transmittance rate of 92% and is scratch-resistant and explosion-proof.

Corning Gorilla Glass seems to have lost favor in the domestic market, possibly due to the absence of support from Huawei, which had a leading market share. According to IDC’s report on the Chinese smartphone market in the first quarter of 2020, Huawei, with its brand advantage and diverse smartphone products, held a 42.6% market share, ranking first in the Chinese smartphone market. Corning Gorilla Glass has lost the support of this leading market share manufacturer, so its development in China will certainly not be as smooth as before.

Furthermore, although Corning Gorilla Glass has a relatively strong hardness, it is far from the “indestructible” level that merchants once boasted. According to well-known gadget abuser “JerryRigEverything” on YouTube, in the scratch test videos of the Xiaomi Mi 9 and Redmi Note 20 Pro, the Mi 9 screen did not show significant scratches after being cut by a sharp object with a Mohs hardness of 5; scratches started to appear when a sharp object with a Mohs hardness of 6 was used, and when the sharp object increased to a Mohs hardness of 7, the Mi 9 screen showed clearer and more noticeable scratches. The Redmi Note 20 Pro’s screen showed the same scratching situation as the Mi 9.

Finally, this type of glass is relatively expensive. With the rise of domestic glass manufacturers in China, using domestically produced glass can achieve the same scratch resistance effect, or even better, while reducing costs. Therefore, there is no need to continue using “Corning Gorilla Glass.”

Huawei Kunlun glass’s popularity has ignited the domestic glass industry. Currently, it seems that replacing Corning Gorilla Glass with domestic glass has become a trend. If Corning wants to regain its former glory, undoubtedly, it needs to make more changes in terms of product and marketing.

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