14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since its acquisition of a Liquidmetal license, the tech industry has been expecting Apple to churn out a new iPhone model featuring a housing made from the space-age material.
So far, no such luck. But next year, when the iPhone 6 comes out, Apple may finally use the material more broadly.
So far, the fruity company headquartered in Cupertino, California only used Liquidmetal for small parts, like the SIM ejector tool that ships with every iPhone.
Experts weighing in on Liquidmetal iPhone rumors have said that the technologies used to cast this material into whole iPhone enclosures will take years to mature.
It seems 2014 may finally be the year when Apple releases a Liquidmetal iPhone, if two patent applications published today in Europe are to be considered.
One filing talks about the customized injection mold for creating iPhone parts, whereas the other details the manufacturing of an iPhone's bottom side using a “a bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy” and, in some instances, a “glassy alloy.”
The wording is all too familiar for those of us covering Liquidmetal news.
“A proposed solution according to embodiments herein is to provide a consumer electronics device housing or frame made from a bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy core in which at least a portion of the housing or frame is clad in a ductile material,” reads the patent description, according to Patently Apple.
“In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a consumer electronics device having a housing including at least a bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy, at least one input/output port or jack, and a ductile coating at least over the bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy adjacent the at least one input/output port or jack,” the filing adds.
Apple is also said to be developing some curved displays for the next generation of iPhones.