Corning is a fascinating company and recently the news about how they collaborated with Steve Jobs to build the glass for the first iPhone became public, making them that much more interesting. Believe it or not but the ancestor of the now famous Gorilla Glass in the iPhone and hundreds of other devices was invented in 1952 and by accident. The product was waiting decades looking for a market and the company started to experiment with it just before Steve Jobs came knocking.

Tom Keating alerted me to a fascinating article done by Wired which gives you all the details of how the glass is made and its evolution.

The challenge for the company seems to be getting ahead of itself. After all the famous Future Made of Glass video was made for potential investors over a year-and-a-half ago and since that time the company has seen its stock price drop by about 50%.

I am not going into the financial analysis of the company in this space but I do find it incredible that Corning can see its market capitalization decrease so greatly at a time when the world can’t get enough glass covered gadgets.