The US Patent and Trademark Office today officially published a patent for Apple Inc. (US 8,364,032, “Light isolating protective cover for small form factor electronic device”) which describes the flash assembly for a plastic-bodied iPhone that comes in various colors:
Light isolating protective cover for small form factor electronic device:
A portable device has a rear facing camera assembly and a front facing display assembly that includes at least a protective cover layer, a display stack that includes a plurality of display components arranged in a plurality of interconnected layers, the display stack providing an imaging service, and a flat support chassis arranged to provide support for the display stack. In the described embodiment, a protective cover can wrap around and protect at least the rear portion of the portable device without adversely affecting an image capture process carried out by the rear facing camera assembly.
Read more, and see Apple’s patent application illustrations and diagrams, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Alex” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple’s budget iPhone a mix of iPhone 5, iPod touch, and iPod classic design elements, with 4-inch Retina display, say sources – January 28, 2013
Apple reportedly to debut radically redesigned 5th-gen iPad in October; iPhone 5S, plastic iPhone coming; 4.7-inch ‘iPhone +’ in prototyping stages – January 25, 2013
Apple’s entry-level iPhone may adopt U.S.-made transparent plastic chassis, sources say – January 15, 2013
Low cost? Should be a perfect product for those working the collective farms in China. It’s what every forlorn barley farmer dreams of owning one day.
You really are a miserable little shit, aren’t you! Why don’t you do all of us a favour and go play on the freeway.
Apple covered an opaque backplate for small mobile devices…
No, I didn’t read the whole thing. I just can’t take much more of this patent crap from anyone.
Could LiquidMetal technology be used in place of plastic? Apple has yet to use the technology it paid for. Anyone know?
Yep. Liquid metal. Apple is unlikely to go back to plastic.
I agree. Given that even the least expensive iPod uses a unibody aluminum outer body, I think Apple has come to the conclusion that’s the way to build consumer electronics. Tim Cook didn’t manage the supply chain by letting unnecessarily costly elements be included in the design.
Personally I couldn’t care less if their phones are made of plastic, glass or liquid metal. It’s just a case. It’s the insides and the screen that matter. As long as the case holds everything together and doesn’t break easily who cares what it’s made of? Lightweight and durable are probably the most important factors. It really doesn’t need to be any thinner for me. My fourth generation iPod is too thin. But that’s just me. Apple should be concentrating on a larger phone. That just seems to be a no-brainer. If Apple currently had a larger phone it would outsell the iPhone five 3 to 1 very easily. But Apple will have at least another refresh of the current iPhone five form factor to save on production costs. That’s good business sense. However, in the long run I think they’re losing customers by not having a larger phone available. They are already behind the curve in that respect. And in the end that’s not good business.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/01/30/apples-128gb-ipad-aims-to-drive-profits-up-a-path-competitors-cant-easily-follow
“Fat iPad”
What?
I don’t care about glass, aluminum or plastic so far it doesn’t come overpriced as usual 😉
do you mean: “as long as…”?
I wouldn’t care about as long as it doesn’t feel cheap and it is RECYCLABLE!
Have you been buying samdung for too long?
I hope they don’t make a plastic case iPhone. Apple is a premium company that sells premium products once you start making it cheap with cheap products you will sell a shit load of product but it will cheapan your name. It would be like Rolls Royce deciding that it wants to build a Kia to compete