A refreshed iPhone is expected in October and Apple is considering using a material called liquidmetal in order to differentiate itself from the competition, according to reports. iPhone 5 rumors aside, what is liquidmetal and why build a phone out of something that sounds so strange?
What is Liquidmetal? “Liquidmetal is the trade name for a new class of metallic alloys. The alloys have a unique atomic structure, more like glass, and are commonly known as “bulk metallic glasses” or “bulk amorphous alloys.”
Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes,
Apple and Liquidmetal
Although nobody outside of Apple HQ can really speculate exactly when iOS devices will be clad in Liquidmetal alloys, we can confidently speculate that it’s more a question of when, rather than if.
The main piece of evidence that points to Apple using Liquidmetal as a material for its casings is the fact that it was granted a perpetual, exclusive license for use by Liquidmetal technologies in 2010. Although Apple used it for internal parts in older tech such as the iPhone 3G, this license would suggest something a little larger in scale.
Rumours do also suggest that the new iPhone 5 will sport a metallic casing, much like that of the iPad. This would replace the glass casing that has been troublesome to a few and simply shattering for others.
It would make sense that if the tech is in place that the case could be fabricated using Liquidmetal alloys. They would make the phone stronger, lighter and much more resistance to impact and even overheating. God knows, we may not even need to use cases on the next generation of iOS toys.
Whether we’ll see Liquidmetal on the new iPhone, or better still on a slimmer MacBook Pro, is yet to be revealed but you can pretty much bet this futuristic stuff will make an appearance on some of your favourite
