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My theory on why Apple chose to go with a glass back for iP4

I

iPhonedHome

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2008
306
0
Dallas
I think that Apple is testing the waters early with the back glass as they might release a patented double screened future iPhone. Just having fun here.

Can anyone think of some potential uses for a phone with a screen on both sides?

I just remember seeing a patent that Apple put out last year regarding this.

Thoughts?
 
I see uses for a "touchpad" on the back, but not two screens. It would just increase the cost while adding only a little amount of functionnality. After all, if you hold it in one hand, how can you (or someone else) see the other screen?:confused:
 
Yes! There must be a reason.

So many complains about reception, and grip of death. No one's complaining about this very fragile front and back glass phone?

At least with dropping the 3GS you had a 50/50 shot that it wouldn't shatter!
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

My guess is that the next iPhone will have the same form factor but the rear glass panel will be touch-sensitive (mainly for scrolling, etc) ... Of course, they'll have to change the antenna next time around; I'm sure they don't want to go through this mess again.
 
redbotsoftware said:
Yes! There must be a reason.

So many complains about reception, and grip of death. No one's complaining about this very fragile front and back glass phone?

At least with dropping the 3GS you had a 50/50 shot that it wouldn't shatter!
Click to expand...

Here at Apple - we improved on that design. We weren't happy with 50/50 percent chances. We wanted to make sure it was a full 100 percent chance you'd shatter the case!
 
redbotsoftware said:
Yes! There must be a reason.

So many complains about reception, and grip of death. No one's complaining about this very fragile front and back glass phone?

At least with dropping the 3GS you had a 50/50 shot that it wouldn't shatter!
Click to expand...

Having any smartphone with glass comes with risks just as getting in a car has risks that you may wreck it. Apple, or any other manufacturer of phones could give two chits about it being dropped. They go for functionality and aesthetics.

Anywho I don't think that in fact if Apple came out with a multi-sided screened phone that both screens would be identical. Just curios as to what all the back one would/could used for.
 
While there may be some cool uses, the main reason why they choose glass on both sides is to match the rest of their product line. I don't think I can name 1 apple device that was released in the past year or so that wasn't all glass+aluminum.
 
lewis82 said:
I see uses for a "touchpad" on the back, but not two screens. It would just increase the cost while adding only a little amount of functionnality. After all, if you hold it in one hand, how can you (or someone else) see the other screen?:confused:
Click to expand...

You're holding it wrong.
 
iPhonedHome said:
I think that Apple is testing the waters early with the back glass as they might release a patented double screened future iPhone. Just having fun here.

Can anyone think of some potential uses for a phone with a screen on both sides?

I just remember seeing a patent that Apple put out last year regarding this.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Maybe a full-sized retinal display on one side and the current phone and keyboard display on the other. That would be an phenominal and expensive portable multimedia device that would be no larger than the current iPhone. ... Dream on ...
 
Alternative thought:

Everyone remembers the Apple patent application for a zirconia (ceramic) case.

The detail lost in the reporting of that application, is that it's for a glass/ceramic case that is all one long extruded oblong piece with internal slots for circuit boards.

All it needs is end caps, and you have a mostly one-piece case.

The iP4 design seems like a stepping stone towards that case design... with the bezel antenna being a side experiment... since a major point of the extruded case patent was to be transparent to radio waves.
 
my theory: it looks neat

@ kdarling: isn't plastic radio transparent aswell anyways? To me, it seems the only reason for the bezel antenna was to create additional space inside the device.
 
Fliesen said:
@ kdarling: isn't plastic radio transparent aswell anyways? To me, it seems the only reason for the bezel antenna was to create additional space inside the device.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right.

At the same time, I'm pretty well convinced from that bezel antenna patent, and from the FCC submittal docs, that there's still a large antenna piece across the whole bottom inside of the phone.

Idea: bring the bezel antenna piece internal to the tube. Wouldn't take up much space if it was just a thin ring.

Just thinking aloud at 4am.
 
kdarling said:
Yes, you're right.

At the same time, I'm pretty well convinced from that bezel antenna patent, and from the FCC submittal docs, that there's still a large antenna piece across the whole bottom inside of the phone.

Idea: bring the bezel antenna piece internal to the tube. Wouldn't take up much space if it was just a thin ring.

Just thinking aloud at 4am.
Click to expand...

or just cover it with shiny plastic ... if strips of tape (supposedly) work, then it's not about the construction itself, but just that it's an open wound ... i couldn't care less if there was some sort of shell around the antenna to begin with.
I don't mind a bumper either. so ... meh ;)
 
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