A report on Sunday repeats what's we've heard before, that Apple is planning an 20th anniversary iPhone. The company's existing research points to what it may look like and how it might work.
The report is that Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone will consist of one piece wraparound glass, instead of the more usual glass front and back on the chassis. It's a design that has been many times revealed in Apple's patent filings.
According to Bloomberg, this iPhone 20 will be the first curved iPhone design since 2020. It's claimed that it will fit with the Liquid Glass user interface that is currently in beta testing, but shortly to launch publicly.
The fact that the details of such a design have been readily available in the patent filings, and especially because they have been repeatedly included, suggests that the design is possible. Patents never speak to the ultimate cost of a design or of any technology, so it's not been certain that the wraparound glass idea is practical to mass produce.
An early render of a round iPhone based on earlier patent filings.
But then one of the first mentions of such a design — and how the curved edges could also be touch-sensitive — was seen in a patent filing back in 2020 and there are some much older references too. Perhaps it's taken this long to make a version that can be manufactured at scale.
"For example, glass backs and glass sides may be transparent, allowing the electronic device to include additional displays that are viewable through the sides and/or the back," said that early patent. "Moreover, the side- and back-viewable displays may be made touch and/or force sensitive using touch- and/or force-sensing systems, effectively turning the side and back surfaces into additional input devices or surfaces with which a user may interact to control the electronic device."
Despite having worked on it for years, if Apple does do this, then doing it for the 20th anniversary iPhone seems to fit. It was for the 10th anniversary one that Apple made radical changes such as dropping the once famous Home button.
For the 10th anniversary, the iPhone X introduced a major redesign — image credit: Apple
At the time, Tim Cook said that the new iPhone X design would establish smartphone technology for the next decade. So even though that was marketing PR spin, 2027 will be ten years later.
There is the issue of the Liquid Glass redesign of the iOS software, though. If it's true that the 20th anniversary iPhone will have matching all-glass hardware in 2027, then that will be two years after the Liquid Glass iOS was launched.
It would seem to make more sense to introduce the two together, but conceivably, Apple may have wanted to get people used to the new iOS look. Whatever the reason, Liquid Glass is 2025 and the all-glass iPhone does seem likely for 2027.
