(Telecompaper) Corning has announced the launch of Gorilla Glass 4, which it claims is up to two times tougher than any competitive cover glass design in the market. According to Corning, the new Gorilla Glass will protect the glass used in smartphones or tablets from shattering if they're accidentally dropped. The company's scientists used new methods to drop devices face down from a height of one meter, creating a glass that Corning says survived the fall about 80 percent of the time, while the soda-lime glass used in other phones shattered in nearly every test. "With Gorilla Glass 4, we have focused on significantly improving protection against sharp contact damage, which is the primary reason that mobile devices break," said Corning in a statement. Since its launch in 2007, Gorilla Glass has been featured in more than three billion devices. Corning said its global customers including Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, and Microsoft had already begun product sampling and shipment for Gorilla Glass 4.