Future iPhones could sport sliding expandable displays

There are rumors of curved iPhones and foldable iPhones. However, a new Apple patent filing (number US 20240098913 A1) shows that Apple is at least considering devices with sliding expandable displays.

About the patent filing

In the patent filing, Apple notes that the displays in electronic devices may not offer sufficient screen real estate to display information of interest to a user. At the same time, it can be difficult to enlarge the size of electronic devices too much to accommodate larger displays, because this can make devices too bulky.

A possible solution, per Apple: electronic device with a display mounted in a housing. The housing may have portions that slide relative to each other. When user wants to place the device in a compact unexpanded state, the housing portions may be slid towards each other. When it is desired to expand the viewable size of the display, the housing portions may be slid away from each other.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “An electronic device may have a housing with portions that slide relative to each other. A display may be supported on a surface of the housing such as on a front face of the housing. The housing portions may slide between an unexpanded state in which the display has an unexpanded viewable area on the front face and an expanded state in which the display has an expanded viewable area on the front face that is greater than the unexpanded viewable area. 

“The housing portions may have interior regions that contain electrical components. The display may be formed from a flexible display substrate. A portion of a flexible display may be stored in an interior region of the housing when the housing is in the unexpanded state. In the unexpanded state, the flexible display may have one or more bends and may double back on itself one or more times.”