If you want to understand what the future of consumer mobile will look like, you should turn to Apple.
And if you want to understand what Apple's future products will look like, you should turn to Apple's patent applications.
If you follow my blog, you may have read about this here (back in 2006), when Apple filed for new interface. This interface has since taken over the mobile world...
So what will the future of mobile consumer device hold, as Apple views it? Well, of course - the future is green, with sun light powering (or at least enhancing) the power of our mobile device:
From a recent patent filing by Apple, it seems the company wants to place solar cells under the LCD touch screen inside a range of portable devices such as iPods.
As claimed here, this is not simple to achieve, mainly due to the fact that the solar power in a panel is directly proportional to its surface area, and the screen areas in portable devices tend to be small. But as we know, the iPhone and iPod have large screens that occupy most of the front of these devices, allowing more solar cells to be stacked beneath the display. The power collection component of the system also has to be redesigned, to support partial shading, for example by users gripping the device.
Several attempts have been made at this previously, but as we've seen already, none have which had much success (costs, form factor, usability). But as we all know, if anyone can overcome these hurdles and make it happen, its Apple.
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