Apple has received quite a bit of negative press over the last year for lack of innovation in their products as they have favorite re-iterations on existing design. It would seem that Apple is waking up to this negativity and is starting to develop new products and in the case of the patent highlighted in this articles new stylistic approaches.
So, the US Patent and Trademark Office has published an Apple Patent showing a new concept for the iPhone which has a transparent body with a flexible display (see image above). What potentially is interesting with this concept, is that the display could possibly wrap around both the front and rear of the display to provide more viewing area.
The patent further explains a number of other interesting and potential features:
- Facial recognition technology could be used to detect the user of the phone
- To protect against damage the phone is described as being encased in glass, bent into a conical shape
- There are no buttons, and a coating could be added to reduce smudge marks on the glass. Instead of buttons on the side, multi-touch gestures could replace buttons such as the locking mechanism.
If Apple keep producing designs such as these, and are successful in bringing these to market, they could easily regain their coolness factor and once again start dominating the smartphone market. Many of the smartphone makers are producing iterations on existing designs trying to wow consumers with additional software functionality (i.e. GS4, iPhone 5). What is needed is this out the box thinking to really shake things up. Of course, the Smartwatch (Samsung v Apple and Google) wars are already heating up, which may have the same affect.
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