With the launch of the Apple Watch Series 2, Apple also introduced a new “Edition” model made from ceramic, which in the process also saw Apple discontinue its $10,000 Gold Edition model. Now we would leave it at that, but recently some have begun to speculate that the ceramic Apple Watch Edition could pave the way to a ceramic iPhone.
Given that features like 3D Touch and OLED displays first made their debut in the Apple Watch before arriving on the iPhone (OLED iPhones are rumored for 2017/2018), it doesn’t seem like quite a stretch to think that the ceramic Apple Watch could be a hint of what’s to come for the iPhone. This is theorized by a certain self-styled Alchemist & Metaphysician Brian Roemmele on Quora.
According to Roemmele’s lengthy post, he points to various Apple patents that have been filed that all seems to suggest that a ceramic iPhone is something Apple is looking at. The most recent patent was actually filed last August in which it talks about a component formed from a ceramic material, along with diagrams of what appears to be an iPhone, along with what appears to be the Apple Watch.
The filing also goes on to describe the benefits of using ceramic, such as it being highly scratch resistant and being relatively light. However it has been noted that there are downsides to ceramic, such as how it doesn’t conduct heat as well as metal, meaning that Apple will need to find a way to dissipate heat from the iPhone in another manner.
It has also been said that ceramic is brittle, meaning that dropping a ceramic iPhone could more or less see it shatter completely. As to when we might see such a phone, probably not anytime soon. The rumors are suggesting that we could be seeing an all-glass iPhone in 2017, so maybe don’t get your hopes up just yet (unless this all-glass iPhone has ceramic components).