Foldable iPhone: touchscreen from head to toe, according to a patent

• Apple is working on a foldable, buttonless iPhone
• The shell would be tactile, to avoid obstructing the view of the screen with your fingers
• No release date yet

Buttons are ancient history. Apple has imagined a fully touchscreen iPhone, where the traditional controls installed on the edge are no longer. This is obviously reminiscent of the rumor concerninga possible mobile equipped with similar systemsand whose release would coincide with next September. Today, however, the information is very official and comes directly from the Apple company's laboratories, with diagrams validating their intellectual property.

In the document that we were able to consult, we see that Cupertino imagines a screen that can close on itself like with a Galaxy Z Fold 4 from Samsung. The entire chassis is not covered with a touchscreen panel as we have seen in other patents, but the engineers behind this one thought of solving another problem. Indeed, when you use a touch interface like the iPhone screen,your finger hides a certain part of the information. Moving the controls to the shell, conversely, would avoid missing certain elements of the display. And this is precisely what is offered by Apple, with touchscreen.

Is the market ready?

The only question we ask ourselves, in view of these particularly evocative data, is that of profitability. Of course, there is no proof that Apple actually intends to market such solutions any time soon; Sometimes patents never materialize for the general public. But what if that were the case?

Without a doubt, success could be there. Indeed, the folding smartphone sector has already proven itself and manufacturers are coming one after the other to offer their own devices of this type. For example, we also find them inXiaomior atOppo. As for the tactile “buttons”, this is nothing more and nothing less than a technology that Apple has already mastered. Remember Touch ID, still available on the third generation iPhone SE: the principle is more or less identical. Indeed, the shortcut which redirects to the phone's home page does not have a push mechanism. The user simply feels a vibration when touched.

Watch out for the price!

However, if a folding iPhone comes out tomorrow, it will have to pay a price. All analysts agree that the bill will be higher than that ofan iPhone 14 Pro Maxtoday, the price of which still starts at 1,479 euros. Moreover, all competing brands also offer very high prices for their foldable ranges. At Samsung, again,le Galaxy Z Flip 3 exceeds a thousand euros, him too.