Rumors can always be counted on to give an idea of what future iPhones might have in store, but there’s always an air of uncertainty about them. The patents, however, while still somewhat speculative, may confirm that Apple is working on something.
Take these two patents, which were just granted to Apple this week. The first, with the compelling title, “Electronic Devices with Tactile Input Components and Haptic Output Components,” describes how a device would work with touch controls instead of actual buttons. According to the patent filing, the touch controls would have circuitry that “could provide haptic output in response to touch input.”
This patent appears to confirm a report from last October by Ming-Chi Kuo, who tweeted that the iPhone 15 Pro will have solid-state volume and power buttons. However, in addition to the power and volume buttons, the patent filing also shows schematics that include an area where the Home button would be. Consistent reports have surfaced of Apple researching ways to implement Touch ID without a home button in future models of the iPhone SE, but it’s unclear if this patent is related to this research.
USPTO
A second similar patent, “Electronic Devices with Display and Touch Sensor Structures”, discusses how “display layers and touch sensor layers may be superimposed by the enclosure walls of an electronic device”. What’s most intriguing about this patent is that it specifically describes how touch input could be implemented in a phone that folds.
“A foldable electronic device may have a flexible transparent wall portion that joins flat transparent walls,” according to the patent filing. Sounds like a description of the “joint” that would connect the two halves of a foldable device. The patent also describes touch controls in the outward facing portions of the foldable device. The patent abstract states that the technology would implement a “touch sensor layer and a display layer [that] may extend under the front and side portions of the glass layer. A touch sensor layer may also extend under the opposing rear wall.
Apple is used to not being first to market, but being better when it actually comes, and this patent seems to show that Apple is trying to take a different approach with a foldable device. Rumors of a foldable iPhone have been circulating ever since Samsung and others released the first foldable Android phones. Now, Samsung is readying the fifth incarnation of its Galaxy Fold, while most rumors put a foldable phone or iPad over a year away.
