[captainmuon]

In my experience, the harder and more scratch resistant the glass the easier it shatters. Maybe the more sustainable option would be to have normal glass or some kind of plastic that you can easily replace every 1-2 years? I guess it is a hard problem though since for phones the glas is usually bonded to the touch sensor and the LCD. Maybe you can make the screen protector a first-class citizen.

Also I'm not a huge fan that every capacitive touch screen is glossy. The anti-glare coating doesn't really work well for me. You can get matted displays (for example car GPSes often have them), but they have a diffusor that reduces the visual quality. I think it would be nice to try a non-matted, but non-glossed display like what you have on certain desktop monitors. Then you could also try other top cover materials instead of gorilla glass.

[CodeGlitch]

My observation is slightly different: Phones made from metal (ie iPhones and high-end androids) tend to be the ones with shattered screens. My cheap plastic phones will bend and bounce when I drop them, as in the energy of the drop doesn't go into the screen.

[captainmuon]

Yes, you're probably right. I've had two all-glass or glass with metal trim phones break from a very small height (falling out of my pocket on a small stool). There is no where for the energy to go. I wonder if there is a way to put a crumple zone into the phone?

The hardened glass by itself is probably fine.