Corning JV boosts India’s global dreams

When high-profile tech companies set up shop in a new country, it is accompanied by a lot of media hype and back-patting by the authorities, who are quick to lay claim to credit for creating jobs and improving the economy. The announcement that Apple is increasing its production facilities in India was an example of this.

The fact that Apple still depends on China to produce 75 percent of their iPhones, and the country is their biggest customer base, takes some shine off the claims. Nevertheless, it is a step forward for a country that, for the past two decades, wasted opportunities to move in that direction.

India seems to have made another significant step forward with another key player in the tech scene – Corning Incorporated – announcing they too are establishing a factory in India.

Corning who? Well, don’t be surprised if you haven’t come across the name yet, even though it is likely that you have been using their products every day. Here’s how: if you have a smartphone, you touch Corning’s product whenever you use it.

The screens of almost every smartphone use Gorilla Glass manufactured by the company headquartered in Corning, New York.

So when Corning announced earlier this month that they are establishing a factory in Tamil Nadu under a new joint venture with the Indian company OptiemusInfracom, it was more than just another Apple component supplier establishing a base here.

The Bharat Innovative Glass Technologies factory to be established in Kanchipuram District aims to start production by the end of this year, according to its Indian partner.

Maybe the approach of the Tamil Nadu government is different, but the announcement was not followed by the flooding of the internet by chest-thumping cyber fans of the state leaders or the ruling party there. Something that governments like the one in New Delhi and Kerala should look to emulate.

To understand how Corning became an essential player in the smartphone scenario, you have to go back a long way – right to the day when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, setting off the smartphone revolution.

When Jobs showcased the iPhone on January 9, 2007, at the Apple conference, what he showed was one of the two prototypes that the company had made. The Apple team had worked on the model for more than two years, and Jobs announced that iPhones would start shipping out by July that year.

Trouble started just a day after Jobs wowed the world with the latest Apple innovation. As Apple COO Jeff Williams described in a speech years later, the legendary founder of Apple wanted the iPhone design changed because he was not satisfied with it.

Jobs informed the designers that he had kept the prototype, the first phone that used a full front screen, in his pocket along with his keys and some coins and discovered that the plastic screen developed scratches.

In a classic example of understanding the end-user experience, Jobs realised that most people would put iPhones in their pockets along with items like car keys and that could lead to scratches on the screen if it were plastic. He instructed the design team that he wanted it changed to scratch-proof and sturdy glass.

The problem was that Apple designers had searched for such a product, and no such glass was available in the market. Moreover, the much-hyped launch of the iPhone was just weeks away and going for a major change like that was unthinkable. But Jobs wouldn’t take no for an answer, sending the design team scrambling to meet his demands.

Established in 1851, Corning was one of the leading global suppliers of glass and had conducted extensive research to enhance the toughness of glass. In the 1960s, they developed an ion exchange process and created Gorilla Glass, a product known for its toughness and scratch resistance. However, due to the complexity of the process and high production costs, the project was placed on the back burner.

When Jobs was presented with the idea of Corning’s research, he expressed a desire to meet with the company officials. The meeting, as described in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, started with Corning CEO Wendell Weeks telling Jobs, “Can you shut up and let me teach you some science?” after listening to a lecture about the glass-making process from the Apple boss.

Despite the initial exchange, the meeting proved productive, leading to Corning dusting out its old project and manufacturing the glass sheets that met Apple’s requirements. It was then delivered to the factories in China just weeks before the official launch of the iPhones.

As reported by The New York Times later, the first sheets of glass reached the factory after midnight just a few weeks before the iPhone launch. What followed was an accomplishment achievable only by a Chinese factory.

“A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into bevelled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day,” says the 2012 NYT report.

This highlights the demanding work that Apple factories face, and it would be interesting to see how the Indian workforce manages such rigorous schedules.

Thanks to the efforts of the Chinese factory, Apple was able to ship out its first iPhones as scheduled, and the rest is history. The impact of the iPhone was slow, but steady. By the last quarter of 2007, Apple had sold 1.4 million iPhones, but Nokia was far ahead with their iconic 3310 model selling 7.4 million.

The revolution initiated by iPhones is ongoing, with smartphones and apps becoming an integral part of our daily lives. A crucial aspect of these gadgets that we carry in our pockets or handbags is that the screens hardly get scratched, even after months and years.

Now, we take all these for granted, but it was the Gorilla Glass developed by Corning that made it possible. One can only speculate how smartphones would have fared if their screens were all scratched up or were fragile pieces that needed careful handling.

The success of iPhones paved the way for more smartphones, and each of them chose the Gorilla Glass manufactured by Corning. This glass became an integral component of phones, tablets, and similar gadgets. It is now estimated that 8 billion gadgets have used Corning’s product.

The glassmaker is now establishing a base in India as Apple, along with other manufacturers, seeks alternate production facilities due to US-China tensions and the drastic Covid lockdowns imposed by the Xi Jinping administration. These events made companies realise the risks of depending entirely on China for their production needs.

But when companies like Foxconn, responsible for manufacturing iPhones, decide to establish a factory in a new region, they require an entire network of component suppliers, as their success is contingent on a well-oiled supply chain. This is why companies like Taiwan’s Pegatron and Finland's Salcomp are currently expanding their operations in India.

Corning’s decision to join them in setting up operations in India is a significant boost for India’s standing as an alternative choice for global manufacturers.

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