A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013. Reuters

Sapphire glass cover will finally become a reality in time for the rumoured iPhone 7 release date in 2015 and Apple will reportedly source the material from its long-time manufacturing partner in China - Foxconn.

The latest supply chain report from Asia points to the possibility of Foxconn taking the place of GT Advanced Technologies as Apple's sapphire supplier following the latter's financial collapse. This was hinted by Foxconn's reported plan to set up a $2.6 billion manufacturing complex in central China, G4Games said in a new report.

The tech blog site pointed to Focus Taiwan as source.

Sapphire glass cover production in Asia

The same report suggested too that core operations of the Foxconn facility is the manufacture of device displays that Apple will use on its upcoming iPhone and iPad generation and glass cover made of sapphire material.

Foxconn is Apple's choice as the company is seen to deliver the iPhone maker's required yield while meeting the tech giant's tight deadline.

The latest news, also indicated that "Apple has not given up on a plan to use sapphire displays in its next-generation smartphones," according to Focus Taiwan.

The American company, however, is closely studying "the adoption of the scratch-resistant screens to ensure that there are sufficient supplies," the publication added, thus making Foxconn as the most logical choice.

iPhone 7 killer features

With sapphire getting a fresh vote of confidence from Apple, the material joins the growing number of powerful specs and killer features that will come stuffed with the iPhone 6 sequel.

One notable upgrade is on the camera department, which is speculated to jump from 8Mp to a high of 21MP, courtesy of Sony's freshly introduced CMOS sensor Also, the next iPhone rear shooter is likely to sport a dual-lens camera set up that that will allow the capture of images in DSLR-quality.

And in case sapphire will again skip the 2015 iPhone, Corning will surely step in with its Gorilla Glass 4 that the company said is nearly unbreakable, notwithstanding numerous and nasty drops. Corning is a perennial Apple supplier.

If Apple will simply use its release date template established in the past two years, then the iPhone 7 touchdown can be expected as early as September 2015.