Apple patents phone where bending is a feature, not a flaw

Imagine if your phone does not need a protective cover, and you could fall from almost any height without breaking it? And if, despite being as large as the IPhone 6 Plus, your phone can be folded and tucked away in your pocket?

This phone does not exist today, but Apple has obtained a US patent for a device that could see a future IPhone that moves more like a silicon wafer as metal or glass. All Apple needs to do now is to determine how to build it.

"Flexible electronic devices, heading Apple patent discloses a Handest layers whose components are flexible and can be fixed in several stable positions. Flexible components would include display, battery, circuit boards and other components that can leave the unit with regions of greater flexibility.

What could Apple with a flexible IPhone? For one, he could avoid another "Bendgate ', since the device is designed to be" folded for storage (eg in a pocket). "But he could also offer a completely new user interface beyond the touch screen and standard features such as sliders and toggle switches. for example, a button on the unit could instruct the phone to turn on or off, answer a call, start an application, change the volume, or to start playing a song or movie.

Such a phone would also pass old Nokia drop test with flying colors: Apple notes in the patent, "rigid electronic devices may be vulnerable to damage in case of impact as dropping the unit on a hard surface."

"Flexible electronic devices may be more resistant to damage during impact events such as drops because the flexible device can bend or deform while absorbing impact.

"Distortion of this type can increase the duration of an impact reducing the pulse received by other components of the flexible device," he added.

As for the materials used to create flexible housing, Apple leaves enough open ended, citing "deformable material such as plastic, thin glass fiber composites, thin metal (e.g., aluminum, etc.), fabric, silicone, other suitable materials, or a combination of these materials. "

The patent may sound familiar because it was noticed when it was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2013. The idea is based on a long tradition of patents for flexible and curved components back to 1978.

Apple was granted more patents of the flexible device. A filed in 2011 rumors that his then Deputy wraps Watch could be slapped on the wrist power. Another envisioned a display that wrapped around the entire device, and similarly that the Russian company Yota smartphone made, turn the back of its handsets in the screen real estate.

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About Liam Tung

Liam Tung is an Australian business technology journalist living a few too many Swedish miles north of Stockholm for his liking.