Thank you all for coming today. I'm delighted to see such a good turnout and I'm glad that this time even the weather seems to be cooperating, although spring seems to be in no hurry to come to Corning this year. The annual meeting of shareholders of Corning Incorporated will please come to order. I'm Wendell Weeks, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Seated to my left are Linda Jolly, Secretary of the Corporation and Ginger Lawrence, the Inspector of Elections.
Today's meeting is in 3 parts: the official business of the meeting, my reflections on the state of the company, and some brief concluding remarks. Following the meeting, we'll have a special presentation from Corning's Chief Technology Officer, Doctor. David Morse, about our innovation programs. After his presentation, all shareholders are invited to lunch in the tents outside. Now we do not have a printed agenda for this meeting.
So let me explain the formal actions that we will take. Ms. Jolly will report the number of shares being voted and confirm that the meeting has been properly called. I will introduce the Board of Directors. I will call for a motion for the election of 12 directors.
Next, I'll call promotions for the advisory vote on executive compensation and to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent registered public accounting firm for Corning for 2013. Then I'll call for a vote on all three motions. After this formal action is completed, I'll discuss the state of the company. Now some of you may have questions not covered in my formal remarks today. We encourage you to ask questions during today's luncheon, where you'll have the opportunity to speak directly to the company's officers.
We can give you more complete answers at that time. Also, we can point you to exactly the right person to provide you the information that you need. To help with this process, company's representatives will be wearing white badges to help you identify them. However, if you cannot stay for the luncheon, you can ask your question following my remarks. Now, we'll start the formal part of the meeting.
Just a note, any valid ballots handed up at today's meeting won't be in this morning's preliminary vote totals, but they will be included in the official vote tally in a Corning SEC filing early next week. Madam Secretary, may we have your report on the representation of holders of stock here today.
Mr. Chairman, as of February 25, 2013, the record date for this meeting, the corporation had outstanding 1,474,000,001,131 shares of common stock representing that same number of votes. There are represented here today in person and by proxy 1,242,000,000,001,30,494 votes or approximately 84% of the total votes. A quorum requires 737,000,000,56,761
votes. As you heard, a quorum is present. May we now have a report on the proof of call and notice of this meeting. Mr.
Chairman, I have certified lists of all record holders of common stock at the close of business on February 25, 2013, and the affidavit of Computershare Trust Company dated March 12, 2013 certifying to the March 11, 2013 mailing of notice of this meeting and proxy materials to each shareholder of record.
Thank you. Please file the documents with the meeting records. Now it is our practice to not have the secretary read last year's meeting minutes. However, if anyone wishes to examine last year's minutes, they should see Ms. Jolly after the meeting.
I will now introduce the members of the Board of Directors and ask them to stand when I say their name. Please hold your applause until everyone has been introduced. Doctor. John Seeley Brown, retired Chief Scientist of Xerox Doctor. Stephanie Burns, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dow Corning Corporation Mr.
John Canning, Co Founder and Chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners Mr. Richard Clark, Retired Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Merck Mr. Robert Cummings, Vice Chairman of Investment Banking of JPMorgan Chase Mr. James Floss, Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, Corning Incorporated Mr. Gordon Gund, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gund Investment Corporation Mr.
Curt Landgraf, President and Chief Executive Officer of Educational Testing Service Mr. Kevin Martin, Partner of Patent Boggs LLP and Former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Doctor. Deborah Rehman, Executive Chairman of MetaMarkets Group and Retired President and Chief Executive Officer of Check Point Software Technologies Doctor. Ono Roeding, Retired Vice Chairman and Director of Citicorp and Citibank Mr. Hansel Tookes, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raytheon Aircraft Doctor.
Mark Wrighton, Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis And most of you know, one of our former directors who is here today, Jamie Houghton, who also served as Chairman and CEO. Although he's retired from active service, he remains a vital part of Corning's family. We value his counsel and we're honored by his ongoing participation. Please join me in applause for our current and former directors.
The first business of the day is to elect 12 directors for 1 year terms. Ms. Lawrence, please confirm that you have signed the oath of inspectors of election.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I have signed an oath here.
Madam Secretary, please affix this oath of inspectors of election to the meeting minutes. I now call for nominations for directors.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the following be elected directors of the corporation to serve until their successors have been elected: John Seeley Brown, Stephanie Burns, John Canning, Jr, Richard Clark, Robert Cummings, James Vlas, Curt Landgraf, Kevin Martin, Deborah Reiman, Hansel Tookes, Wendell Weeks and Mark Wrighton.
I second that motion. Is there any discussion? The second proposal calls for an advisory vote of shareholders approving the corporation's executive compensation as disclosed in the proxy statement. I will now entertain a motion and resolution for that approval. Mr.
Chairman, I move the adoption of the following resolution. Resolved that on an advisory non binding basis, the total compensation paid to the company's named executive officers as the CEO, the CFO and 3 other most highly compensated executives as set forth in the proxy statement for this annual meeting and pursuant to the disclosure rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Item 402 of Regulation S K, which includes the compensation discussion and analysis and the supporting and tabular and related narrative disclosure on executive compensation is hereby approved. I second the motion. Is there any discussion? The 3rd proposal calls for ratification of the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Corning's independent registered public accounting firm for 2013.
I will now entertain a motion and resolution for that ratification.
Mr. Chairman, I move adoption of the following resolution. Resolve that the shareholders of the corporation ratify the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the corporation's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2013. I second that motion.
Is there any discussion? Now it's time to review the voting procedures for the 3 pending motions. Under the corporation's bylaws and SEC rules, the election of 12 directors, the advisory vote on executive compensation and the ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm will be voted by ballot. Most shareholders have already voted. If you have previously voted by proxy, either by returning your proxy card, voting by the Internet or voting by telephone, there is no need for you to vote again today.
Any shareholders who waited and need to vote now should use the proxy card or the ballot received at home, Then raise your hand and an usher in a red coat will come to collect it. You can also obtain a ballot from an usher by raising your hand. The ushers will collect any ballots either now or later and give them to the Inspector of Election at the end of the meeting to be included in the final vote count. I now ask the Inspector of Election to report the results to the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, I report that each of the 12 nominees for the Office of Director was elected to the company's Board of Directors by a majority of votes cast. The advisory shareholder vote was in favor of the total compensation paid to the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the 2013 proxy statement. I also report that a majority of votes cast were in favor of the ratification of the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2013.
Thank you. I declare that all 12 nominees per director are elected. The shareholder advisory vote approved the company's executive compensation program and the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2013 is ratified, all as indicated by the report of inspectors of election. As I said earlier, today's vote results are preliminary. Final detailed numbers will be filed with the SEC in a Form 8 ks next week.
That concludes the formal part of the meeting. Now I'd like to talk to you about how your company is doing. Now my remarks will include some forward looking statements and actual results might differ materially. You can find detailed risk factors in our most recent 10 ks and also on Corning's website. You should also be aware that we use certain non GAAP financial measures and performance indicators to assess how Corning's financial and operating performance is doing.
You can find a reconciliation between GAAP and non GAAP measures on Corning's Investor Relations website. Now that we have that housekeeping out of the way, it is my pleasure to report that your company Corning Incorporated is strong, is stable and is growing despite a very challenging environment. No question, 2012 was a tough year. We entered the year with a significant drop in profits, driven primarily by large price declines for LCD glass. And as the year progressed, the weak global economy began negatively impacting all of our businesses.
But in 162 years, Corning has been through recessions, depressions, world wars, industry meltdowns and numerous evolutions driven by changing markets. Corning is no stranger to tough times and the leadership team has worked hard to ensure that the company is stronger than any challenge that we face. Thanks to a solid foundation and outstanding execution by our 29,000 employees around the globe, we reached key milestones in each of our major businesses and had the highest sales in the company's history. More importantly, we are positioned for growth in 2013. Today, I'll reflect briefly on Corning's 2012 performance and this year's Q1 results.
Then I'll share our expectations for 2013 and discuss the key trends behind our future growth. But first, I'll begin where I always do with a brief overview of who we are and what we do. Corning is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. We invent, manufacture and sell Keystone components that enable high technology systems for consumer electronics, telecommunications, mobile emissions control and life sciences. We succeed through sustained investment in research and development, deep materials and process knowledge and a highly collaborative culture.
We are guided by a clear strategy framework. This framework has 3 elements. Corning has to grow. We must provide balance and stability to the company. And we must preserve the trust of all of our stakeholders.
So how do we do this? We grow primarily through global innovation. We consistently invest in research and development because we understand that Corning's future growth will come from technologies that are in our labs today. We pursue a diverse opportunity set focused on different applications and markets because we know that not every idea will succeed. And we conduct both product and process innovation to create long term sustainable competitive advantage.
Now because innovation comes with risks, we proactively work to create balance and stability. Balance comes from business and market diversity, which reduces Corning's overall volatility. Our ongoing investments in specialty materials, in telecommunications, environmental technologies and life sciences have helped to mitigate the declines in LCD glass pricing. Our geographic diversity provides balance as well. Approximately 77% of Corning's sales now come from outside the United States, which helps reduce our vulnerability to regional economic fluctuations.
We create stability by vigorously protecting Corning's balance sheet. We maintain cash in excess of debt and focus on generating strong cash flow. Our strong cash position ensures that we have the liquidity to weather tough economic times and the resources to invest in Corning's future. Finally, we earn the trust of our stakeholders by always living our corporate values. Our values help us make tough decisions and ensure that we are always taking the long view of what's best for the company and our employees, our customers and our investors, and of course, the communities where we operate.
This strategy framework guides us during growth surges as well as setbacks. However, we also define focus priorities each year based on the existing business environment that we face. In January 2012, we established a clear mandate. We must form bottom and march up. Forming bottom means stopping the decline in net income.
Marching up means increasing Corning's profitability through a combination of growth in existing businesses, new innovations and strategic acquisitions. So let's look at how we executed in 2012. The first priority in our mandate is to reestablish positive momentum in display technologies. We signed supply agreements with several leading display makers, which we believe will stabilize our share at each, allow us to manage capacity more efficiently and to help maintain more moderate price declines. And we also introduced several new glass compositions for high performance displays to enable the next generation of devices and ensure Corning's ongoing leadership in the industry.
The second step is to grow our other businesses. Despite significant economic headwinds, all our segments achieved key milestones in 2012. Sales in Specialty Materials were up 25% year over year, driven by record demand for Corning Gorilla Glass, which is now featured on more than 1.5 1,000,000,000 devices worldwide. Telecommunications grew sales in China and began shipping products for a large fiber to the home build out in Australia. Our Environmental Technology segment improved gross margins and secured new business at key customers.
And in Life Sciences, we completed a strategic acquisition that positions the segment to reach $1,000,000,000 in sales within the next few years. Each of these businesses has the potential to generate double digit earnings growth in the coming years, which means we will have many horses pulling the wagon. 3rd, we must create new revenue and earnings streams. In the past 4 years, we've completed 6 acquisitions in telecommunications and life sciences that have expanded our technology portfolio and extended our market reach. And we continue to innovate to create entirely new businesses.
We advanced several key initiatives in the past year. Our mobile access technology is growing at double digit rates and helped ensure reliable wireless coverage at key locations for the presidential conventions as well as the last 2 Super Bowls. We launched ultra slim Corning Willow Glass, which has the potential for a broad range of applications from conformable displays to solar energy devices. And we introduced new optical cables based on clear curve fiber to create more robust connections between consumer devices. Now you'll hear more about our innovation programs from David Morse in today's special presentation.
The final step in our mandate is to deliver cost and functional excellence. Everyone in the company did their part by making careful program choices, controlling spending and increasing efficiencies. Thanks to strong execution on these four fronts, Corning generated record sales of $8,000,000,000 in 2012. Now net income was down year over year as we expected, but core earnings per share were up in the 4th quarter for the first time in 2 years. And we had our 9th consecutive year of positive free cash flow.
Although it's still very early in the year, we are building on that momentum in 2013. Yesterday, we announced 1st quarter results that were ahead of analyst expectations. Core earnings per share were up 15% from 2012. LCD price declines were more moderate than last quarter and most of our businesses posted improved profits. These results are a strong indication that we have successfully formed bottom and are beginning to march up.
As our performance improves, we are honoring our promise to return cash to our shareholders. Yesterday, we announced plans to increase the quarterly dividend from $0.09 to $0.10 per share, which is the 3rd dividend increase in 18 months. We also announced the share repurchase of $2,000,000,000 which follows a 1.5 $1,000,000,000 buyback that we completed in December. These actions underscore the Board's confidence in Corning's financial health and our ability to continue generating strong operating cash flow. So before I move on, I'd like to introduce the members of the management committee who are leading Corning's March up.
Please stand when I say your name. James Laws, Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Doctor. David Morse, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Kirk Gregg, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Larry McCray, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development and Doctor. Jeffrey Evenson, Senior Vice President and Operations Chief of Staff. I feel blessed to work with such talented leaders who are so dedicated to Corning's long term success.
Thank you. So what's ahead for Corning? This year, we expect to grow revenue, improve profits and generate strong cash flow. We have exciting new products on the horizon, including our first antimicrobial glass and an all optical distributed antenna system to improve wireless communication. And we will continue to make strategic capital investments.
This morning, we announced a plan to invest close to $250,000,000 at our Irwin plant right down the road to increase manufacturing capacity for diesel products. This allows us to capture anticipated market growth while creating new jobs in our community. As we look further into the future, we are excited about Corning's growth prospects. Major trends are playing to Corning's strengths and creating new opportunities for our core capabilities in specialty glass and fiber optics. I hope you all had the opportunity to view the slide show before the meeting started.
Did you? Now it included highlights from Corning's long history along with some facts about the amazing properties of glass. Now it's not a big secret that we're huge fans of glass at Corning. We're amazed by its strength, its stability, its versatility and also the complex engineering opportunities that it presents. We enjoy its beauty, its cool and noble feel, its ability to take on color in the way that it handles light.
And we're constantly learning more about the capabilities of this remarkable material. For more than 160 years, our scientists have taken advantage of the technical and artistic properties of glass to drive new innovations. And we've consistently challenged people's ideas about what glass can do. We've made glass tough enough to survive drops, scrapes and the impact of a 4 pound steel ball. We've made glass that's slimmer than a dollar bill and flexible enough to replace plastic films in certain applications.
We've increased the capacity of optical networks so that a single fiber can carry 10,000,000,000,000,000 bits of information per second over a kilometer, enough to fill 250 DVDs every second. And we've demonstrated the glass can improve our lives by cleaning our air, making surfaces smarter and accelerating drug discovery. As Corning extends the capabilities of glass, more and more customers from a broad range of industries are turning to us to solve tough problems. At recent meetings, you've heard me describe a world of ubiquitous displays with lifelike images, intuitive interfaces based on touch and gestures, seamless delivery of real time information and life enhancing technologies that deliver extraordinary benefits from everyday products. It's the world we depicted in our day made of glass video and it's a world that depends on highly engineered specialty glass and fiber optics.
I'll leave you with some food for thought before I close. The number of mobile devices already exceeds the number of people on earth. And between 2012 2016, the number of smartphones will double, while tablets triple increasing the need for both displays as well as thin tough cover glass. Broadband traffic is expected to reach more than 116,000 petabytes per month in 2015, driving the need for fiber optic networks. To put that number in perspective, it would take nearly 2,000,000 CD ROMs to hold the equivalent of 1 petabyte.
The resolution on your TV set will grow from an average of 2,000,000 pixels today for standard high definition to 33,000,000 pixels for ultra high definition, increasing the need for display glass with exceptional surface quality, temperature tolerance and dimensional stability. I'm sad to report that more than 80% of the world's population breathes fine particulate pollution beyond what is recommended by the World Health Organization, prompting legislation around the globe for tighter emissions control. And the U. S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2,050, the number of people over 65 in the world will triple, increasing the need for more effective drug therapies.
All of these trends drive demand for Corning's display technologies, telecommunications, specialty materials, environmental technology and life science products. That's why we're so excited about Corning's long term growth opportunities. I'll close by summarizing what I believe Corning offers to shareholders. We are financially strong and stable, which allows us to weather the toughest business conditions. All of our business segments are tied to significant growth trends.
We have strong cash flow and a sustainable dividend, which allows us to reward our shareholders. And our innovation portfolio creates the potential for explosive growth beyond our existing businesses. Now we think that that's a pretty compelling package. But as I look at this audience and see friends, neighbors, employees and alumni. I know that for many of you Corning is more than a financial investment.
This is a company that has succeeded for more than 160 years in a world where only 0.1% of firms reach the age of 40, 0.1%. This is a company responsible for numerous life changing innovations, a company with a relentless desire to make things better, a company that manufactures products that make a real difference in the world, a company that has always upheld the values instilled by Amery Houghton Sr.
In 18/51.
We have never been satisfied with what is currently possible. We have never been seduced by what is easiest and we have never substituted short term returns for long term value. The leadership team is proud to honor the legacy of this great institution. And we are committed to making Corning even stronger for the generations who will follow us. I hope that we have earned your confidence with our track record and that you share our excitement about the company's future.
We are glad to have you with us on this grand journey. Thank you all. Before we turn to the final business of the meeting, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our retiring directors, Gordon Gund and Ono Rudin. Mr. Gund has served on Corning's Board for nearly 23 years and held the position of Lead Director for the past year.
Doctor. Reuting has served for 18 years, including longstanding participation on Corning's Finance and Audit Committees. They have both left an indelible mark on Corning and helped us honor our commitment to good corporate governance. We've been enriched by their experience, their wisdom and their friendship and we wish them the very best. Thank you both.
Now let's turn to the final business of the meeting. I hope that my remarks address some of the topics on your mind. We look forward to answering your questions over lunch. However, if you're not attending the luncheon or if you have a question that cannot wait, please ask it now. Is there any further business to come before this meeting?
If not, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. I so move. I'll second my motion. All in favor, say aye. Aye.
So ordered, I declare this meeting adjourned. Thank you for joining us today. The directors and I need to leave for the final business of the day, but please stay seated for David Morse's special presentation followed by lunch in the tents outside where I will join you. Thank you all very much. Please welcome Doctor.
David Morris, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Thanks and good morning. I'm David Morris, Corning's Chief Technology Officer, and it's my great pleasure to talk to you today about Corning and about some of our exciting new innovations. Over the past 105 years, there have been only 9 CTOs, leading Corning, Chief Technology Officers that have led our R and D. I'm proud to be the 9th and it's great to see so many friends in the audience from my 36 years at Corning. This is truly a place where innovation with technology is fundamental to the character of the company.
These 9 scientists that you see here, glass scientists, physicists, chemists and engineers represent continuity
and
more than a century of continuous, steadfast investment and innovation. Their legacy includes dozens of life changing innovations. The major ones are shown here. Starting with the light bulb. Most of you know the story.
Thomas Edison came to Corning and asked us to create the glass envelope for an incandescent light bulb. But really what we needed was a machine that could make light bulbs. So we invented the ribbon machine almost 90 years ago and 100 of billions of light bulbs were made on that machine. And people are still making light bulbs on ribbon machines, the only technology that ever worked. And TV, tube forming, without which TV could never have taken off.
And optical fiber, Without fiber, there could be no Internet. And Gorilla Glass. Without it, the smartphone would not be a reality today. I'm pleased to report that we're still making life changing innovations. We have a large project portfolio, and today I want to share a few
of those innovations with you.
Let's start with display, the essential keystone device for our digital age. Just think of how many of these things we have in our lives. TVs, phones, tablets, everywhere you turn from your living room to the airport. They've changed the way we get information. And they all have technical glass, several glass components in each one.
This is the information age. It's also the age of specialized technical glass. With its advanced glass technology, Corning is poised to enable the next wave of display innovation, very small to very large, ultrathin form factors, immersive experience where you feel like part of the display. We're at the heart of this incredible industry, and we're working on technology to make new sizes, thicknesses and shapes. It is fantastic to be part of this.
I grew up with 1 black and white TV. Now I live with a family with 20 color displays of all kinds, phones, pods, computers, TVs, even in cars. In fact, the world has already hit the $1,000,000,000 mark for LCD televisions. Nothing in the world combines transparency,
versatility
and durability like advanced glass from Corning. You've heard a lot about Corning's Gorilla Glass, but we have 3 new glasses for display: Eagle XG Slim, Lotus and Willow. These glasses will help make the next generations of TVs, tablets and handhelds a reality. I'll mention each of these briefly. Our new Eagle XG Slim Glass means thinner and lighter displays.
Our new glass is as thin as 0.3 millimeters at up to Gen 6 size. That's 5 by 6 feet. So imagine a big picture window with the thickness of a playing card. It's going to save LCD panel makers a lot of money since they won't have to etch glass to make it thinner as they do today. And they will be able to make their super slim mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, monitors and even ultrabooks such as Intel's new product for touch.
And the newest bright high resolution displays will need our LOTUS glass. LOTUS is tough enough to withstand the demanding manufacturing processes of these high performance displays while delivering the pristine surface quality customers require. This allows for the vibrant colors and clarity that LCD displays and now OLED displays are known for. Let me talk about one of the most exciting recent developments, thin flexible Willow glass. It's simply better than plastic.
We've just introduced this product, but we're already looking at many applications from OLED displays to transparent antennas for wireless applications on mobile devices. The number of applications for a product that bends like plastic, it can be processed on a roll like plastic, but has the optical properties, the temperature resistance and the total impermeability of glass are almost endless. So let's talk for a moment about our major recent innovations in Gorilla Glass. You know that more than 1,500,000,000 consumer devices are a reality because of the strength and toughness of Gorilla Glass. Gorilla is everywhere, and you can see from the short video running behind me, the science behind Gorilla is not trivial.
Fusion glass is immersed in molten salt, which changes the chemistry and the surface of the glass, making it much stronger. To stay in the lead, we're coming up with new technology to make each generation of Gorilla even better. For example, our new Gorilla 3 provides outstanding scratch performance along with all the a competitor's glass. I hope we'll see. There we go.
Strengthened soda lime glass, a competitor's glass Corning Gorilla 2 and our newest innovation Gorilla 3. During the test, each sample is subjected to higher and higher scratch forces. By the end of the test, all of the samples, except Gorilla 3, are deeply scratched and in fact, the competitive glasses have broken. There's no comparison. Gorilla Glass 3 is really better.
It's amazing really. It's more scratch resistance. It retains its strength even if it is scratched. And any crashes it does get are much harder to see if they should occur. Now we continue every day to come up with new ways to make Gorilla even better.
And one that you heard from Wendell earlier is that we're working to introduce a germ resistant surface treatment. So what we have learned is to touch surfaces on phones and tablets collect and grow lots of germs. What this data says is that touch screens are dirtier than almost everything in our lives, including an average bathroom. And we live with these devices all day long. We touch them all the time and so do other people.
Antimicrobial glass can kill more than 99% of the germs on its surface. Our new antimicrobial Gorilla Glass is amazingly effective at killing these germs and keeping new ones from growing, including some of the really nasty ones that you read about in the press. You can see from this brief sequence just how effective this is. On the left is an untreated piece of Gorilla and on the right is our new antimicrobial treated glass. Both are covered with bacteria that have been dyed so that you can see them.
The left is covered with bugs. The antimicrobial treated glass on the right just obliterates them. We're getting ready to put this on millions of cell phones and tablets, but think where else this could go, elevators, hospitals, kitchens, for example. Another exciting new area for Gorilla is automotive glazing, windows for cars, trucks and buses. As you know, manufacturers already use aluminum, magnesium, even carbon fiber to take weight away from cars.
Glass is one of the last places to take significant weight out of cars, saving fuel, electricity and making handling better. And Gorilla is tough, making cars more secure and more theft proof. As you saw from Corning's day made of glass video, electrochromic adjustable tinting and displays right on car windows are coming, and they all need technical glass. And carmakers know and respect Corning from a 50 year relationship with our catalytic converter substrate products. Beyond the many applications I've already talked about, our R and D team is looking at new applications for Gorilla, from appliances to whiteboards.
Corning is working with leading manufacturers to integrate Gorilla Glass right into household appliances. Designers love the cleatability and beautiful look and feel of technical glass. Architects love the weight savings and the toughness that Gorilla can bring to elevator interiors and building lobbies. And the elevator manufacturers love Gorilla's toughness and lightweight. Even whiteboard companies are excited about a thin, tough surface that you can write on and erase time and time again.
Let's talk about another area enormous potential for Corning Innovation Life Sciences. We're in the information age, but with a lot of focus on biological information. Corning products help drug companies screen and test new compounds, help culture the cells they'll need for research, even help food and beverage companies test their products for safety. And today, almost every facet of life science and biological research uses Corning products, more than 2,000,000,000 pieces last year alone sold from Corning Life Sciences. And we have a big portfolio of innovations with many more on the way.
We dramatically expanded our new product portfolio and market access with the acquisition of Discovery Labware from Becton Dickinson, a perfect complement to our line of products. New packaging products, vessels, specialized surfaces and cell handling technology will help researchers invent better, safer drugs, and we will participate from invention in the lab to production. Let's turn to another area where Corning is making life changing innovations, the environment. Today, more than 1,500,000,000 vehicles utilize Corning's proven Clean Air products. Our filters and catalytic substrates have made our air cleaner, our cities less smoggy and our lives better.
Compare that to Beijing. And we are creating new substrates that reduce emissions even more by starting faster and using less scarce precious petals and filters that can trap even finer particles and thin wall filters that can regenerate even faster and more reliably. We're not yet done making the environment cleaner. There are a lot of places where we can still clean up the air much further. Gasoline vehicles still emit particles.
Boats and ships are still significant polluters. And for those of you who think the weather has been bad recently, the world keeps pouring 1,000,000,000 of pounds of CO2, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every year. Our filters and substrates can help solve all of those problems, And we have some exciting technologies on the way. Another way Corning can help save fuel is with ultracapacitors. There's a big push in the automotive world for something called stop to start to save fuel.
That means that when you pull up to a stoplight, your car engine shuts off. When you touch the gas, it starts again. But to start again, you need a jolt of power. That's where ultracapacitors come in. They store a lot of electricity and it can release really fast, much faster than a battery.
And they can do it a 1000000 times, which your battery cannot. That's important because you may stop and start your car 125 times in a typical use pattern in a day. And Corning ultracapacitors are way ahead of the current industry leader. Take a look at this brief video. What you see here is a test of a Mercedes diesel auto engine.
At the upper right of the screen is a chart showing the number of stops and starts for the industry leader's ultracapacitor that manages 4 times. Now you see the Corning ultracapacitor, which starts the engine 6 to 7 times. Which would you prefer in a cold day here in Upstate New York? Let me wrap up by talking about the cornerstone of the information age, Corning's innovations in optical communications. The impact of Corning Optical Fiber has been just amazing to those of us who have been here since its inception.
1,800,000,000 kilometers of fiber. That's enough to go around our globe 45,000 times. And after more than 40 years, it's still the best, the most deployed and the highest performance fiber in the world. And fabulous manufacturing technology here in the United States is largely responsible. In the video playing here, you can see a glimpse of the fiber making process whereby a fiber blank becomes a thin perfect fiber.
This elegant corning process is one of the most tightly controlled precise manufacturing operations of any kind, anywhere. Corning has led the world in optical fiber design and performance for decades and is setting the standard again. I'm very happy to talk about SMF 28 Ultra Fiber, our new fiber, which makes for easier installation, better signal transmission from cross country to fiber to the home. This product can be used everywhere. It's much easier and more forgiving to install.
You can wrap it tightly around corners, obstacles without losing signal. And the signal is much stronger for longer distance. This will save telecommunications companies like AT and T and Verizon and Sprint a lot of money. And to help protect our customers' past investments, UltraFiber is fully compatible with the world's huge installed base of standard single mode fiber, much of which is Corning's. Another area of telecommunications and one I'm very excited about is connectivity, because every day millions more devices get attached to the Internet.
In fact, it is estimated that in less than 10 years, 50,000,000,000 devices will be connected to the Internet, 50,000,000,000. That's 7 devices for every human on the planet. That's cell phones and tablets and TVs and automobiles and even appliances. Obviously, optical fiber systems will be a huge factor in tying this all together, but so will wireless systems. You don't often think of us, Corning, as a wireless company.
But in fact, we're in it in a big way and it's going to get a lot bigger. This May, at CTIA, which is the largest wireless trade show in the United States, we will announce a major announcement, our all new excuse me, our new all optical 1 wireless platform is called 1. This exciting platform helps tie together the various wireless networks in buildings and enterprises and provides them with the unmatched capabilities of optical fiber. So am I talking about fiber or wireless? Imagine a major medical convention.
Imagine a convention with thousands of surgeons attending. During a break, they all head out to check their cell phone messages and look for critical high definition images that their offices have sent them. They bring out their smartphones and what do they see? A dead screen, where a call doesn't go through. And local Wi Fi is agonizingly slow as they all compete for bandwidth.
But if the convention center had our new one wireless platform, all the cell phones in the complex, even 1,000 of them, could connect at the same time and Wi Fi too. Anywhere there is a high concentration of cellular and Wi Fi users, schools, buildings, campuses, hospitals, convention centers, stadiums, OneWireless can provide access to the huge bandwidth of fiber. I am really excited about this technology. We've spent a number of years on it in the lab and it's now being introduced and it's going to change wireless. And our customers are equally excited.
We're also innovating in cables. Our new Thunderbolt and USB 3 optical cables are 10x longer, 50% slimmer and 80% lighter than copper cables. These can be used to connect computers, printers, storage components, where you want, how you want using cables that include Corning's clear curve fiber and a tiny optical engine. This means that you can move a huge amount of data fast using the huge bandwidth and reliability of optical fiber and you can do it yourself. We call that prosumer, professional tools for consumers.
We've started to reach the limits of copper's capability to connect really high performance computers and chips together. Light is the only thing that will work. And for years, chip makers like Intel have been experimenting with exotic and scarce materials to make high speed optical chips, but they've been too expensive. They've been unreliable. And so working with Intel and with one of Intel's big data customers, Corning has developed a whole new way to connect components and systems together for new data center designs using light and silicon.
It's cheaper. It's more reliable. It's faster. These cables work at more than 100 gigabits per second. So we brought to the party a new fiber, a new cable and new connectors, all designed specifically for this application.
We brought the whole works and it does work.
So you can see,
we're working on a lot of exciting and important new technologies in display, in specialty materials and environmental and life sciences and telecommunications, plus a lot of new opportunities in R and D and many that I couldn't describe in the time today. I'm really excited and I hope you're excited too. But we have to have a lot more ambition to continue to change the world and we've set ourselves some really tough problems to solve. We call these grand challenges. Just a few of these as examples.
Glass still does break, but we're working on a dozen ways to make it tougher and stronger, as you saw with Gorilla 3. All electronic communications can be monitored, today maybe, but we're working to make optical fiber untappable. Here's a hard one. The speed of light in glass is fixed.
Nope.
We've gone faster than the speed of lighted glass, and we plan to go faster still. Climate change is inevitable, not if we can have anything to say about it. We're working hard to reduce and capture greenhouse gases. We have some exciting technologies that you'll see soon. These are tough problems.
But meeting grand challenges is what having life changing innovations is all about. It's what Corning is about. So thank you very much for your attention. And please join me and the other Corning executives for lunch in the tents outside.