Apple Secures Folding iPhone With Wraparound Display In New Patent

Apple just filed a patent for a different kind of iPhone. This invention is seen as more advanced compared with its current flagships, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. It also screams of an extreme redesign that’s being rumored to be a game changer for the Cupertino giant’s next iPhones.

On Thursday, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application by Apple Inc., entitled “Electronic Devices with Display and Touch Sensor Structures.” Based on the abstract of the patent, Apple found a way to incorporate display layers and touch sensor layers in an electronic device. There is also mention of curved sidewalls for the display of the gadget. All sides of the handset are designed to have touch sensor layers, even the rear wall.

What’s quite catchy about this patent application from Apple is the mention of folded configurations. The inventors stated that the touch-sensitive smartphone should be operable whether it is in an open configuration or in its folded state. For the latter, an enclosure is going to assist the flexible walls of the device in case it is folded by the user.

The inventors admitted that creating a display that also gathers touch input is quite challenging, but they are keen in providing electronic devices with advanced touch sensor and display structures since, for them, physical buttons and other input devices are not as convenient and as versatile as a touch sensor. Nevertheless, they recognized in the patent that relying on touch screen display would entail blocking images while users give the device touch input.

As per AppleInsider, even though Apple mentioned design elements that could facilitate the folding mechanism of the device, it is still to early to tell if the Cupertino giant is indeed planning to release a foldable iPhone with a curved screen. Also, the upcoming iPhone 7s or iPhone 8 is already expected to launch with a different type of redesigned technology using edge-to-edge OLED display. Thus, the new patent application could be referring to a different iPhone all along.