Apple sapphire glass displays on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were rumor long before the first leaks of the iPhone 6 hit the web. During that time Apple tapped GT Advance Technologies to help them produce these high end displays for their phones and smartwatch. Last month GT Advance Technologies filed for bankruptcy despite their $578 million dollar contract with Apple. Now court documents that have been unsealed shed some light on GTAT’s relationship with Apple, from GTAT’s point of view.
In these documents GTAT COO Daniel Squiller claims that Apple told him not to “waste his time” negotiating terms with Apple as Apple does not negotiate with its vendors. Squiller also claims that Apple placed its employees at GTAT facilities (presumably to monitor production) and those employees impeded GTAT’s ability to conduct its business effectively making GTAT into an Apple “lab”.
“With a classic bait-and-switch strategy,” claimed Squiller, “Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-sided deal.”
“In many ways, Apple, through its unrelenting control of material aspects of sapphire growth and fabrication has converted GTAT from a supplier/seller of furnaces into an experimental research and development venture for Apple funded substantially by GTAT’s other stakeholders.”
GTAT also claims that Apple prevented it “from doing business with any other manufacturer in or supplier to the consumer electronics market, subject to extreme penalties.”
For Apple’s part they deny these claims and say that GTAT could have split from the deal at anytime with no repercussions. Entering into a major deal with a company like Apple is always a major proposition and undertaking for a smaller company. There’s no doubt the army of lawyers for Apple is already at work getting ready to defend their name against defamation. Take a look at the released documents below and read up on the case yourself then let us know what you think in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.zdnet.com/apples-deal-with-sapphire-supplier-was-a-heads-i-win-tails-you-lose-proposition-for-cupertino-7000035573/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: ZDNet[/button] [button link=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/245851259″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: GTAT/Apple – Squiller Declaration[/button] [button link=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/245858376″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: GT Advanced/Apple Agreements[/button] [button link=”http://www.scribd.com/doc/245879354″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Objection by Apple to Debtors[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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