The solution to cramped screen space on mobile phones may not have to be bigger devices. A radical design transformation for the iPhone has been revealed in an Apple patent granted Tuesday.
The button-less phone would take the form of a flattened glass tube containing a wrap-around display potentially visible on any surface of the phone, which would have a front and back but no sides.
“It is believed that, up until now, glass materials have never been used as a structural element providing substantially all of the structural frames, walls and main body of a consumer electronic device,” the patent said. “The wrap-around display substantially increases the available display area that can be used for display of icons, data, images, video and such.”
Apple iPhone product design manager Scott Myers invented the design.
Eliminating buttons would both free up surface space and make the phone more app-friendly, the patent suggested. “In the last few years the functionality of portable electronic devices has increased exponentially,” the patent said. “Further improvements be realized by investigating ways to maximize the utility of unused portions of these devices. A large majority of portable electronic devices have settled into a standard form factor; namely a flat planar form factor with a display on one side and an opaque housing which contains the electrical components covering the rear surface of the device.
“Unfortunately, this popular form factor leaves the sides and rear surfaces of the device unused or at best configured with buttons and switches with fixed location and functionality. Since many of these buttons and switches have fixed functionality they cannot always be incorporated into third party applications.”
A camera and microphones would be included in the device.
The phone would be built by inserting a flexible display into the glass housing. Glass would be used for the exterior because wireless signals can pass through it, and the glass surface would act as a touch-screen. Although the patent calls glass “strong” and “stiff,” it does not specify what type of glass would be used to deter breakage.
Areas of the glass could be obscured to conceal the internal workings for aesthetic reasons, according to the patent.
The new design, of course, is not necessarily going to be adopted by Apple, which like most major technology firms obtains many patents that do not result in products.
IMAGE: A drawing from the patent for a new glass iPhone with a wrap-around screen (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)
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