The latest round of patent awards from the US Patent and Trademark Office released today confirms a number of areas that Apple is exploring for its mobile products. One of the interesting patents awarded today is for 'Flexible Electronic Devices'.
This patent covers the use of flexible components, such as circuit boards or screens, and their applications (reports Patently Apple). The techniques employed could be for cosmetic reasons, to increase the ability of components to absorb damage, or even to use flexing or twisting of components to act as an input from the user. The patent does not narrow the hardware range, noting that the technology could apply equally to the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, or other wearable devices.
Although awarded this week, the patent application was first submitted in 2011 (and first reported on in 2013). This is not a new area of expertise that Apple is investigating, this is something that has been explored in-depth over many years. There's a chance that this is a line of technology that was examined and has been discarded from the toolbox. I don't think that's the case because the areas highlighted in the patent are still areas of interest for Apple.
Looking at screen technology, the patent talks about using flexible OLED screens. Apple is on course to use OLED screens in future iPhones, and while it is unlikely to make the switch this year, an update to the screen technology for the presumptively titled iPhone 7S could see a switch to OLED in 2017. If Apple remains a creature of habit, the 2018 iteration of the iPhone would look to make design changes. Having the ability to curve the whole screen around a new chassis (as opposed to just the edges, which is Samsung's tweak in the S7 Edge) would offer far more design opportunities.
I could see Apple switching to 'flexible' circuitry and screen technology before that point, even if there is no curve in the iPhone design. As technology gets smaller, the ability to absorb impact damage is reduced. As a great many people are quoted as saying, 'it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom that does the damage.' By working flexible circuits and screens into the iPhone, the stress of an impact no longer needs to be focused through a fixed point into unyielding element. Wear and tear Incidents like #bendgate would likely be reduced as well.
An iPhone design that is going to absorb more damage reduces repair costs, increases user confidence, and is a practical use of technology that can be related to a user. That's a win right there, even if there is no curve on show.
But there is one area of Apple's ecosystem where flexible components will make a huge difference.
Look at your wrist. There's nothing flat about it. Wrists are complicated shapes and every one is very slightly different. Now look at a smartwatch, and you'll see a lot of flat surfaces and elements in the hardware. While straps will flex around the wrist (be it through Milanese links, leather fabric, or more esoteric choices) the hardware balances on top of your wrist.
Apple would not be the first smartwatch to curve the construction of the chassis and shell, but flexible circuits could allow an Apple Watch to be moulded to an individual wrist for a better fit that offers more comfort and potential better skin contact for any biometric sensors.
The Apple Watch could also use the idea of flexible circuitry as part of the UI. At the moment the touchscreen is augmented with the crown and a physical button, but this could be expanded out to use parts of the watch straps through flexible circuitry that recognise twists and pinches as inputs using methods other than capacitive surfaces.
As with all patents, there are no indication when these ideas will be used in a product, if at all. That's true of any tech company, not just Apple, but patents do provide an insight into what a company's R&D teams is up to. Apple's approach to flexible circuitry offers upcoming hardware designs more options for construction, presentation, and protection.
It also gives Apple another technology where it can build up an association in the consumers' mind that this is 'how it should be done.' Just as it leveraged its early mastery of 64-bit computing, Apple could leverage flexible circuitry to bend the market to its vision of a smartphone, forcing the chasing pack to follow its lead.
