Apple patents published online show that the new iPhone to be launched next year, in 2017, will probably come in glass with OLED, curved Edge.
The new Apple iPhone 7 is all set for launch next month and there are rumors claiming that Cupertino will continue with an aluminum body as of now.
Glass Phone for 2017
Though there is a lot of anticipation regarding the iPhone to be released next month, there are also rumors about big plans in the offing regarding the future phones of the company. It is rumored that Apple will probably launch a glass iPhone, having an OLED display with curved edges in the year 2017. This will be the tenth anniversary of Apple’s iPhones. The USPTO, the office for Patents and Trademark in the US, show some patents that had been granted to Apple in 2015. They point toward the fact that the company has been working on this technology for quite sometime now.
Patently Apple
According to the Patently Apple site, some 80 patents were offered to the company and one of the patents publish discuss a device having curved display and active sidewalls along with virtual buttons. The patent number 9,411,451 also offers support to a patent of 2013 that discussed curved display for Apple’s device. The company is well known to work on products or projects secretly well in advance. The product is usually launched only when the technology has been completely perfected.
Flexible Edge Displays
The patents discuss an electronic device that comes with a flexible display, which is bent for forming a display on several surfaces in the device. The patent also adds that Edge display feature, functioning as the virtual button or the information display for supplementing its front display. The virtual button could depend on audio feedback or haptic feedback components or any other component for offering feedback to users, when activated. The patent states that the displays could be used for displaying a scrollable list, namely a song list or an artist list.
Similar to S7 Edge
This sounds very similar to what is being offered in the edge displays of the S6 and the S76 Edge by Samsung Galaxy, showing information in a single glance. The virtual buttons can be customized for controlling volume, for scrolling and tapping and so on, where users can also set them up for specific functions.
Vast Difference from Present Gen Phones
The features that could be present in the iPhone 2017 will probably be quite different from the present day iPhone 7, the 6s series coming with physical buttons combined with aluminum frame. The design will continue to be the same for the upcoming iPhone 7, which will be unveiled in September this year. Reports from the analysts have shown that the OLED display along with the glass body will come only in the 2017 device.
The update to the patent will raise the anticipation and suspense regarding the 2017 device. There is still more than a year to go for the launch of this device, but the expectations are sure to build up with such rumors.