“On July 10, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals Apple’s intent to reduce the number of openings at the bottom of an iPhone,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The focus of this invention is to reinvent the audio jack port so that when a user isn’t using the audio jack port, audio can be sent through that same port instead of a dedicated speaker,” Purcher reports. “The new combination port may support a lightning connector.”
Purcher reports, “Combining a speaker and audio jack port is an evolutionary move on Apple’s part because another patent filing of theirs that we recently covered illustrates that ‘Future iPhones may not Require External Audio Grilles‘ at all.”
More info and Apple’s patent application illustrations in the full article here.
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