Dear Apple, Please STEAL These Great Ideas.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal”, remember?
When “Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone” in 2007, the company changed the way we used our mobile phones. The original iPhone was described as “a revolutionary mobile phone,” a “widescreen iPod with touch controls”, and a “breakthrough Internet communications device”.
Gone were the days when Apple would own the “world’s first” in so many technological categories. To be more accurate, it was not really being “world’s first” per se, but more of making an existing technology famous as “world’s first”. At the same time, it took them some “courage” to deliver less in the package (RIP headphone jack, 3D Touch, Touch ID and even the CHARGER).
Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is still great, and Apple does have some technological breakthroughs. For example, the iPhone 12 Pro Max was the first phone that uses a 5-nanometer chip and the first phone with a camera that can record in Dolby Vision. However, don’t you think Apple is having a specs race with its own product line? In my opinion, Apple has been playing safe for the past few years.
In 1996, Steve Jobs famously said: “Picasso had a saying — ‘good artists copy; great artists steal’ — and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Let’s not debate whether Apple has been stealing from others or the potential misunderstanding of a pejorative word — “steal” to describe creativity and innovation. However, with so many technological advancements made by Apple’s competitor, perhaps it’s time to “steal” again?
1. Under-Display Fingerprint Unlock
I don’t think there is a need of resurrecting the Home Button, but we need Touch ID. Why? Because we can’t unlock the phone with our mask on. Yes, there is a workaround with an Apple Watch, but was that another strategy to force us to buy another Apple product? Even if that was true, unlocking a device with a nearby device isn’t safe because there is no way to know how “near” is near.
So, it makes total sense for Apple to include Touch ID under the iPhone’s display, especially with the COVID-19 situation. But Is it even possible? Again, this technology is not new. The in-display fingerprint sensor has been around since 2017. This technology was made possible by Goodix, the company that has been making in-display fingerprint sensor for 208 smartphone models of various brands.
With close to 1,000 under-screen fingerprint technology patents filed in various regions by Goodix since 2018, will there be a “gap” for Apple to create its own under-screen fingerprint display?
As it turns out, Apple filed four patents related to under-display fingerprint sensor in 2020 and has been awarded the “Touch ID under the Display using a Fairly Large Optical Image Sensor”, which is exciting.
If this technology can make its way to an iPhone, I wouldn’t call it a “steal”. Based on the patent, this will be a real innovation because its underlying technology is different from its competitors.
2. All-Screen Display
I think it’s time to remove the top notch from the iPhone’s display. With an 87.4% screen-to-body ratio, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is lagging behind its Android competitors with over 90% of screen-to-body ratio. Hence, it’s only logical that we expect future iPhones without a notch, and I think we are not too far from it:
But how about taking it up a notch (no pun intended)? What if the iPhone has a wrap-around screen? Alright, again, this idea is not new because the Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha had already got a wrap-around screen in February 2020. But there’s hope because Xiaomi’s wraparound screen isn’t exactly “Apple-like”. If Apple can cover every corner of the phone with a display, I’m sure that it will look awesome because there will be no right or wrong way to hold the phone!
3. Built-in Lens mount
The iPhone's camera has almost all the features that can be found on professional DSLRs. Even the sensor-shift stabilization technology, which was only available on DSLR cameras, was adapted for iPhone. Mobile phone camera technology has truly come a long way, and Sony has been the main camera sensor supplier.
Will smartphone cameras make DSLR cameras obsolete? I don’t think so. Although there was a huge leap in smartphone camera technology, the same was happening in the DSLR world. In general, it’s challenging for a general-purpose system such as the iPhone to compete with an embedded system such as the DSLR camera. It’s like trying to compare the work quality of a generalist to a specialist.
But what is the fundamental feature of a DSLR camera? Interchangeable lens! So, why not have a tiny edge around the camera bumps so that we can use it as a lens mount? Okay, this is not new, right? Let’s take a moment to think, from whom should Apple “steal” from?
The Moment lens system is fantastic. It consists of two-part: a high-quality mobile phone lens and a phone case. With this lens system, we can easily screw an external lens onto the phone case, which has a camera cutout that aligns with the phone’s camera. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of this mounting system is buying a dedicated phone case. In other words, you have a very limited choice of phone cases.
In my opinion, the lens should be mounted directly to the phone regardless of the phone case. To do so, Apple can create a very short screw thread around the iPhone's camera bump (see the GIF above). Then, Apple can introduce a series of camera lenses with a threaded hole that can be mounted directly to the iPhone.
Therefore, no one would complain about the small camera bump with this built-in lens mounting system, right?
4. USB-C
Again, USB-C is not new even within the Apple ecosystem. The choice of USB-C port on the Macbooks was a big “courage”, forcing creatives like myself to live with multiple dongles. Well, I can see where this is heading. Apple is making most of its devices to be USB-C-only. We have already seen it in the iPad lineup (except for the iPad mini), and I think it’s time to bring it to the iPhone family.
I really wonder what is taking Apple so long to include USB-C connectivity to the iPhone lineup. On the other hand, Android users have been enjoying USB-C connectivity since 2015.
Perhaps Apple isn’t planning to bring USB-C to its iPhone lineup. Some said that Apple is bringing its “courage” to the next level by making the iPhone portless. That’s right, no ports, no connectors.
So, will we ever see a USB-C iPhone? I don’t think so. According to Patently Apple, Apple was granted a patent for new magnetic connectors. Similar to Apple’s first smart magnetic connector (to connect the iPad to a Smart Keyboard), the new magnetic connector could replace the lightning port for charging and data transfer.
I hate to say this, but I hope that USB-C will be used on iPhones. With so many companies jumping into the USB-C bandwagon, I was hoping that USB-C will be “the standard” connectivity, i.e. the only port or cable that we need.
Concluding thoughts
I think we are not too far from seeing an iPhone with an under-screen fingerprint sensor. As for the other ideas, I think Apple still has a long way to go. What are your thoughts? Are there any features that you would like to see on an iPhone?