Mainstream media outlets weren't particularly enthused by Corning's
And that's not the worst of it. While sales, period, grew in Q3, sales in the all-important display business (i.e., glass used to build LCD TV sets) declined 5% in Q3. Which means we're not just worrying about a sequential decline in glass sales that might happen next quarter; we also have the established fact of a year-over-year decline in glass sales for Q3.
Where does an 800-pound gorilla get its money?
What's left for a Corning investor to feel bullish about? Two words: Gorilla Glass. For nearly a year, we've been waiting for Corning to deliver on its promised $300 million annual revenue stream from this new, scratch-resistant glass. Now, it seems Corning's on the cusp of making that happen. "Specialty materials" sales (Gorilla's stomping grounds) grew 26% in Q3, and Corning Chief Financial Officer Jim Flaws says the glass will produce $250 million in sales this year.
To date, we only know that Gorilla Glass is used in a handful of Samsung and LG cell phones, and Dell's
Where's all this Gorilla green coming from? Analyst Bernstein Research thinks that as Google
And Corning has only just begun.