Sunday, December 8, 2024
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Future iPhones, iPads, and iMacs might have edge-to-edge displays with built-in speakers

Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,543,364” for “Electronic devices having displays with openings” that hints at upcoming iPhones and iPads will edge-to-edge displays. Per the patent, a display may occupy the entire front face of a device. The invention might also allow for major speaker changes.

Here’s the patent summary: “The display may have an active region in which display pixels are used to display images. The display may have one or more openings and may be mounted in a housing associated with the electronic device. An electronic component may be mounted in alignment with the openings in the display. The electronic component may include a camera, a light sensor, a light-based proximity sensor, status indicator lights, a light-based touch sensor array, a secondary display that has display pixels that may be viewed through the openings, antenna structures, a speaker, a microphone, or other acoustic, electromagnetic, or light-based component. One or more openings in the display may form a window through which a user of the device may view an external object. Display pixels in the window region may be used in forming a heads-up display.”

The method described would allow an iPhone or iPad with a true edge-to-edge display. It might also allow microphones and speakers to be built “into” the display itself. The patent says a microphone may receive acoustic signals through the openings and that sound from a speaker may be emitted through the openings. 

And even though Apple has (apparently) given up building its own standalone displays, future iMacs with a bezel-less screen with a built-in speaker, microphone and camera is an intriguing idea.

Apple has also been granted patents for its Time Machine back-up interface (patent number 9,542,423), its Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro (patent D776,116), its Smart Case for the iPad (patent D776,122), and more.

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.