The production issues and scaling make sense. But ignoring that, what would be the advantage of a phone made out of ceramics? The OP makes mention of luster and durability...is it lighterweight, too? Less prone to denting? I'm reminded of the way ceramic knives are often sharper than steel, but much more prone to shattering.
Edit: re-reading the post, I see that the site has chosen to indicate hyperlinks by coloring them #000 instead of the body text color of #666, so I missed the initial link to Quora, which contains a list of advantages: https://www.quora.com/What-will-the-iPhone-8-be-made-of
However, it does acknowledge the brittleness factor. Seeing how phones are prone to being dropped, I'd take a scuff/dent in aluminum over the possibility of a massive crack in my phone's body.
Yeah, I understand ceramics to be very hard but brittle. It seems like a ceramic-cased phone would shatter when dropped. I think it's OK for the smaller, lighter watch in the same way that exoskeletons only work for lightweight animals.
Agreed. I can't help but think back to a black ceramic watch I purchased. The metallic black color and finish were pretty amazing (and it didn't really scratch) but it took a whole 2 months until it slid off a table and the entire band shattered on the floor. Some of the links were replaceable but some weren't. I think I still have the leftovers in a shoebox somewhere. I'm not sure I want my phone to be that fragile.
I'm reminded of a quote from Skunk Works, attributed to Soviet engineer Alexander Tupolev: "You Americans build airplanes like a Rolex watch. Knock it off the night table and it stops ticking. We build airplanes like a cheap alarm clock. But knock it off the table and still it wakes you up."
Ceramic kitchen knives aren't a very good idea for the same reason. They are very hard and scratch resistant, which keeps the edge sharp, but they easily shatter when dropped.
Given the number of times I've dropped my iPhone, I would probably be unwilling to purchase a ceramic model.
After the glass iPhone came out and everyone started complaining about how easily it smashed, I joked that the next iPhone would be made of bone china... looks like I wasn't far off!
Aluminum is highly recyclable (although energy-intensive). I personally wouldn't assume there's less environmental impact. The structure of a hypothetical ceramic iPhone case would be different enough to make it hard to asses this claim based on materials alone.
Edit: re-reading the post, I see that the site has chosen to indicate hyperlinks by coloring them #000 instead of the body text color of #666, so I missed the initial link to Quora, which contains a list of advantages: https://www.quora.com/What-will-the-iPhone-8-be-made-of
However, it does acknowledge the brittleness factor. Seeing how phones are prone to being dropped, I'd take a scuff/dent in aluminum over the possibility of a massive crack in my phone's body.