Aside from their huge investment in Sapphire manufacturing, Apple's reportedly patented a way to build-all-glass devices including iOS phones and tablets, displays and TVs. More precisely, Apple was granted a U.S. patent covering a method of fusing glass structures together to encapsulate the internal circuitry of an iOS device, and that of larger electronics like monitors and televisions.
Why glass? Well, really, why not? The iPhone 4 and 4s were mostly glass and while that design was opening to cracking and shattering when dropped, it was nonetheless quite a breakthrough and glass is better for all those radios after all.
The new patent presumes that pieces of glass can be fused together with all the electronic components safely locked inside. Similar to how Apple works with aluminum to extrude the portions it needs. The result should be an equally solid, seamless but more pleasing design to look at and hold. As for the durability of glass itself? That's likely where the sapphire equation comes in. Sapphire is super resilient, scratch-proof so coating the exterior of a device with it could be the solution.This is an interesting development, nothing may come of it but, it is always fun to speculate what a company with Apple's design innovation and vast resources could do.
Source: AppleInsider