“Apple made waves in 2016 when it decided to get rid of the iPhone’s headphone jack, and again in 2017, when it announced the iPhone X would have a virtual home button,” Tonya Riley writes for CNBC. “Apple is reclaiming as much of the iPhone exterior as it can, so what could be next on the mechanical chopping block? That is becoming a more difficult question to answer: Apple is running out of iPhone surface real estate to repurpose.”
MacDailyNews Take: Beyond Jony’s inelegant kludge, of course.
“A small notch in the screen still exists in order for the company to pack in the phone’s top earpiece speaker and the camera and sensors needed for Apple’s Face ID, a feature that’s expected to soon expand to Apple’s other products including the iPad.. the almost bezel-less design initially faced some criticism from app and mobile designers,” Riley writes. “‘They’re running out of things to drop,’ said Gene Munster, a veteran tech analyst and managing partner at Loup Ventures.”
“With a company as secretive as Apple, it’s hard to tell how close to market the technology needed to make something like an all-screen device is,” Riley writes. “Patents filed by the company, dozens of which will never make it to market, hardly guarantee any future design plans.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The next major design change will be meaningfully curved displays (beyond the silly gimmicks we’ve seen to date) and, perhaps, foldable designs as well.
SEE ALSO:
Apple reportedly prepping game-changing technologies and features for future iPhones – April 6, 2018
Apple working on touchless gesture control and curved displays for future iPhones – April 4, 2018
Apple prepping Micro-LED displays for Apple Watch and Smartglasses for 2019, sources say – April 3, 2018
