While patents generally give us the most interesting information about Apple’s medium and long-term plans, they also hold the most unexpected surprises in store for us. Surprises like that of the patent in question, that of a completely glass iPhone with a screen that covers its entire surface.
The iPhone of the future or the idea behind the design of the first iPhone
The idea of the iPhone as a device reduced to a simple sheet of glass has haunted the collective imagination shortly after the launch of the original iPhone. A device with a full screen, with indicators on the sides, with tactile buttons and no ports that also appear to be in Apple’s plans, at least according to a new patent.
Initially discovered by Patently Apple and titled “Electronic device with glass case”, this patent explores the manufacture of a device, by the images we speak of an iPhone, with a glass finish on its six sides. These six faces would have, inside, with six flexible screens that can adapt to the curvature of the glass and that they could also act as tactile regions.
The different parts of glass would be positioned to form a continuous surface, with a few openings to accommodate the microphone and speakers. In some areas, the glass might even have a different texture, so that with it is only by touch that we could say that it is a tactile surface. A resource that can quickly remind us of the volume buttons, for example.
Depending on the orientation in which you use the phone, the software will display the information dynamically. This would make it possible to visualize information in the corners, information which would also be interactive and which would rid the main screen of the need to display it. We can think, for example, that The Wi-Fi, battery and connectivity indicators will be located in a corner iPhone, so we would have more space for on-screen content.
Finally, Apple is studying how to access the interior of such a device. Necessary both for its manufacture and for necessary maintenance or repairs during its useful life, Apple lifts a kind of glass on the sides. He is also considering the possibility of removing the entire lower part, which is quite in line with the system we saw on the original iPhone
The patent ends with a few illustrations of an Apple Watch, a cylindrical Mac Pro and a Mac Pro tower also made entirely of glass, a material more and more present in Apple devices and quite versatile in many circumstances. The same Apple Watch Series 7 comes to mind, mixing its giant screen with the watch body to practically form a unit.
It is clear that, as the saying goes, from patent to commercial product, there is a long way. But it is very interesting that Apple has such an interesting product as this.
