Apple glass supplier Corning warns smartphone sales down 14%

When heated to a high temperature and then cooled, new chemical composition can change the way glass behaves. For Gorilla Glass, Corning narrows down the number of compositions to a few dozen, does more melting, then picks two or three candidates to test. It can take one to three years of testing to reach the one composition Corning ends up putting into the next generation of Gorilla Glass.

The company's stock fell 4% on Tuesday after it reported a weaker-than- expected outlook for the current quarter.

Many of the top electronics companies, including Apple, will report earnings this week amid concern over slowing consumer electronics sales. There is optimism that the high end of the market won't be hurt by the slowing of electronics sales.

The company said it expected sales of $3.55 billion in the fourth quarter, which was less than the analysts' consensus of $3.75 billion.

The company said that it wouldn't tell investors about the future of the business until it saw some good signs.

During the third quarter of this year, the company saw a decline in demand for tablets and notebooks, according to the CEO. He said that automotive production is behind expectations.

When will the glass market recover? We would like to see more positive evidence before we make a strong recovery in glass demand.

The company's biggest business is making cables and components for fiber-optic systems.

Sales in the company's displays technologies division, which makes glass for computers and phones, fell 28% in the quarter.

The consumer electronics downturn doesn't seem to be getting better this year.

The demand for notebooks and tablets is expected to decline 15% and the demand for phones is expected to decline 12%. In the second half of the year, we expect the decline in devices to be greater than in the first half.

The company reported sales of $3.49 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 51 cents in the third quarter, in line with expectations.