Apple Gets Patent for Wrap Around iPhone Screen

Apple’s Patent for 360-Degree Screen

Apple has been granted a patent recently for a 360 degree screen which would be putting a display on all sides of the iPhone, front/back and slide. The back of the iPhone of Apple would now become a thing of the past due to a wraparound display screen. The application states that `the wraparound display considerably tends to increase the available display area which can be utilised for display of icons, data, video, images and such’. The application of Apple states that the360-degree screen would enable customers to play video games or watch videos which could be played on both ends of the phone.

Moreover it would also display a still photo which could appear in a continuous circle around the iPhone. All the switches which are presently found towards the side of the iPhone would be computer-generated instead of physical buttons as per the patent application. The switches namely the volume control can be extended in size. Details pertaining to the actual plans in incorporating this feature into an upcoming version of an iPhone have not been disclosed in the patent application. Often patent have been approved for inventions which are not brought to the market by the patent holder for motives like the cost of new device or issues in getting it to function in the real world.

One of Multiple Continuations of Original Filing

Apple was seen last month getting inventive with screen settlement in its patent filings with some wild as well as wacky iPad setups. In April of last year and just published, a new patent filed describes a system of building a `portable electronic device with a wraparound display’ which seems silly as well as amazing in alike measure. Though the `new’ is a relative term in patents and Apple had first filed this concept way back in 2011, it was granted in 2014.

This is said to be one of multiple `continuations’ of the original filing. From the contents of the patent, it seems that Apple is not patenting any definite screen technology but instead a manufacturing process which tends to stick a flexible OLED display beneath a seamless piece of glass which wraps all the way around the device. The glass could be opaque in some areas in order to conceal any unsightly seams in the display.

Removable End Cap

Since OLED displays tend to lit up per pixel, any sections of the screen which are hidden by the opaque glass would not be wasting power. There is no example of where a rear facing camera could be on a device, in the drawings, probably under the glass in the back. However one of the possibilities could be of a `removable end cap’ which could be swapped for other modules.

 There are various examples of phone with secondary display towards the back and apparently the clear analog here seems to be Samsung’s Galaxy Edge phone that wrap the screen over the sides. The traditional disclaimer here states that Apple patents plenty of stuff which eventually ends up in a product.