Apple's latest patent shows an all-glass iMac

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Non-Retina iMac
Non-Retina iMac (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • A new patent shows an iMac-like computer that's a single piece of glass.
  • A keyboard and trackpad could be part of the unit.
  • There's even provision for docking a MacBook.

Apple patents pretty much anything and everything its engineers come up with and its latest shows what seems to be an iMac-like computer that's made from a single piece of glass.

First picked up by Patently Apple, the patent shows a device that appears to be constructed from one curved piece of glass. The lower part of the glass would house a keyboard, while the top would be the display.

Mac patent

Mac patent (Image credit: Patently Apple)

An electronic device may include a glass housing member that includes an upper portion defining a display area, a lower portion defining an input area, and a transition portion joining the upper portion and the lower portion and defining a continuous, curved surface between the upper portion and the lower portion. The electronic device may include a display coupled to the glass housing member and configured to provide a visual output at the display area. The electronic device may include an input device coupled to the glass housing member and configured to detect inputs at the input area. The electronic device may include a support structure coupled to the glass housing member and configured to support the computing device.

The patent does suggest that the keyboard area could be made up of either physical or virtual keys, which means we might be typing on glass at some point. There also appears to be space for two trackpads – one either side of the keyboard.

Mac patent

Mac patent (Image credit: Patently Apple)

One drawing even appears to show a MacBook of some sort sliding through from behind the display. In that scenario, the notebook's keyboard and trackpad would be used, with its display hidden by the iMac. It isn't clear what the use case of this would be, but it's possible we could see some form of resource sharing.

At this point it's vital to remember that Apple throws a lot of patents at the wall. Not all of them stick and turn into products that we can buy. Some do, though. And who knows, maybe this will be the iMac of Pro Display XDR of the future.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.