We’ve been following rumors of a folding iPhone since Steve Jobs brought the first smartphone back in 2007. But, there’s some interesting evidence to back it up this time around — a new patent sounds like it could lead to similar designs for phones and other devices.
For years, Samsung has mocked Apple for being slow to develop foldable phones, as if a return to clamshell devices was an inevitable progression. The patent application, granted by the USPTO on Tuesday, suggests that Apple is at least exploring that option, and without a physical button.
The new patent describes the concept of electronic devices, including foldable devices, with touch-sensitive control areas across their entire surfaces. Every surface can be a touch input, including the back and side walls.
The application states that “gathering a user’s touch input and efficiently displaying an image to the user can be challenging. For example, when a user provides touch input to a touchscreen display, the user’s hand may obscure the image”. Apple’s potential solution is to have touch input in more places, such as controlling the camera, volume, brightness. The concept can be applied to a range of devices, but the sample images in the app look the most like a phone, which is where the concept makes the most sense.
The touch sensor layer can be “overlapped” by the outer glass panels on each side of the device, including curved sidewalls. The filing also mentions “wrapping the display around some or all of the device.” Touch sensors on the back of the device might sound weird, but Apple says they can have “gaming apps.”
For foldable devices, the patent notes that the same touchability could be achieved with a clamshell design that uses a “elastic material” that allows the device to bend. Transparent touch sensors will again appear on the device walls, while the “housing” will allow the device to be folded “one or more times along one or more folding axes.”
Now, a phone that folds multiple times and receives touch input on every surface sounds like a radical change in phone design, and one that could be welcomed amid complaints that phones haven’t changed in years. The patent also follows the direction Apple has already taken into the iPhone by removing the button. We’ve heard a lot before about the iPhone’s plans to use tactile buttons instead of actual click buttons.
Perhaps the main consumer concern is structural strength and durability, since you probably won’t be able to fit such a device in an iPhone case. Apple refers to “transparent and opaque materials,” including plastics, metals, fiber composites, or clear glass or plastic coatings. It is worth mentioning that a patent application does not necessarily mean that a company intends to manufacture the described product. Patents are also filed for marketing reasons or to prevent competition.
