Gorilla Glass is the current market leader when it comes to smartphones. It is a high tech protective layer for screens, shielding them from drops, scrapes, and more. It does nothing though to enhance the screen itself. Think of it as a screen protector. Lotus Glass is Corning's next invention and will enhance the visual experience. It can be combined with Gorilla Glass to give the screen strength as well as beauty.

Hundreds of devices are made with Gorilla Glass today, including those by HTC, Dell, LG, Motorola, and Samsung. This includes smartphones and tablets.

Corning is looking to take it to the next level with Lotus Glass. According to the press release, it is designed to work with LCD and OLED screens and should work with smartphones, tablets, and even notebooks. It is a substrate that will fit between the physical screen and the outer protective layer, such as Gorilla Glass. Andrew Filson, worldwide commercial director of display technologies, and a vice president at Corning Holding Japan GK, said:

"Corning Lotus Glass has a high annealing point that delivers the thermal and dimensional stability our customers require to produce high-performance displays. Because of its intrinsic stability, it can withstand the thermal cycles of customer processing better than conventional LCD glass substrates. This enables tighter design rules in advanced backplanes for higher resolution and faster response time."

According to the latest edition of the Kiplinger Letter, the iPhone 5 may be among the first devices to ship with the new glass in 2012. It would work in conjunction with the Retina screens currently on iPhone 4 and 4S devices.

The glass is currently in production according to the company, so this isn't stuff just sitting in a lab somewhere. Companies are likely working with Corning today to integrate into mobile devices.