[DBMandrake]

Just a pure piece of speculation on my part - something which I meant to post several weeks ago when news first appeared that Apple had bought the exclusive rights for the liquid metal patents.

What is liquid metal you ask ?

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/09/apple-buys-out-liquidmetal-patents-to-stay-one-step-ahead-in-materials-game/

Basically its a metal that is very similar in appearance to aluminium alloys that macbooks are currently machined from, but which is lighter and stronger, and can be injection moulded to a precision that currently requires milling with aluminium alloys - eg the current uni-body process. (Apparently even fine pitch threaded holes can be injection moulded with liquid metal)

Unbeknown to me, my Sandisk cruizer titanium USB key drive which I bought a couple of years ago specifically because I was sick of cheap plastic USB key drives that kept breaking on me turns out to be made of liquid metal - and it's always amazed me just how tough and indestructible it is, yet it is light and has kept a polished barely scratched appearance.

Speculation was rife on why Apple might want exclusive rights to the liquid metal process, including new Macbook and iPhone 5 frames, but to my mind, everyone seems to have missed the elephant in the room - the iPad. :D

What is the number one usability problem with the iPad, particularly as an ebook reader ? It's too heavy.

Now imagine a Mark 2 iPad made from liquid metal that is 20% lighter for the same strength, is more scratch resistant with a better surface finish, and which can be cheaply injection moulded instead of requiring slow and expensive milling and drilling.

So my prediction is we'll see the next iPad using liquid metal for its casing and that it will be significantly lighter. Of course we may eventually see it used in Macbooks and iPhone's as well, but the iPad is the one that really needs slimming down, as the iPhone is not too heavy to hold and a laptop is usually sat on your lap or a desk rather than being held in mid air.

Thoughts ? :)

[Hands0n]

Well this is all rather interesting. Liquid metal? I must admit that I had not heard of it before. Well, at least, not where it is not near white hot in a smelting plant.

Certainly, if Apple are scooping up patents for this technology that everyone else has missed, well, more the fool them then. You can't blame Apple for looking around for world-beating technologies to be incorporated into their extraordinary designs.

You know, just to digress a little, it is my thinking that the rest of the manufacturing community simply hasn't "got it" still. Apple has clearly had a vision several years back. And yet none of its competition seems to have actually realised what that vision was. Instead they have gone on a campaign to make inferior copies rather than innovate and improve over what Apple has done.

Surely, it cannot be that difficult!

[DBMandrake]

I should have included a link directly to liquid metals website:

http://www.liquidmetal.com/technology/

It has quite remarkable yield strength, elastic limit, and hardness even compared to titanium alloys, and is an amorphous non-crystalline structure.

[Ben]

I have a liquidmetal Vertu Ascent. It weighs a tonne, so much so that when I dropped it I managed to make a rather nice impression on one of the corners.

Not massively impressed to be honest, though I'm sure Apple would use it in a more eloquent way than Vertu do/did; seemingly to use as much of it as possible ;)

There has been talk of Apple using liquidmetal before - I believe the US iPhone SIM tool is actually made from it, suspected to be a test production run.

[DBMandrake]

Yes apparently only the SIM eject tool for the US iPhone 3G (but not later models, or non-US models) is liquid metal. I have to say though - the SIM eject tool for both my iPhone 3G and 3GS bought in New Zealand appears to be liquid metal - it has that same sheen as my sandisk cruizer titanium, and is very strong. (Yes I'm sure I could bend it if I really tried, but a casual attempt to bend it by finger doesn't have any effect on it)

I think you'll find the Vertu Ascent feels heavy because you're comparing it to other similar sized handsets that are made with plastic cases - it's probably unnecessarily strong, and heavy.

But in the case of an ipad you've already got a pretty heavy device that if the increased strength/weight ratio is true, would result in a lighter device of equivalent strength. (And easier manufacture)

That's my theory anyway :)

[Ben]

The Vertu Ascent would be heavy for an aircraft carrier ;)

Still, I'm hopeful that Apple will experiment with materials for their future devices; they'll need to if they're to remain ahead of the pack.

[miffed]

...... and can be injection moulded to a precision that currently requires milling with aluminium




^^^ This is all there is to it IMO. - the other benefits are simply a bonus

Good metal that you can Injection mould ?? , it's like a dream come true for a company like Apple surely ?

[Ben]

I suppose it would be... I wonder if it'd be used in their next generation of laptops once they're done getting all excited over milling the aluminium?

Unibody FTW :p

[The Mullet of G]

I read on the internet that Apple had patented a way to clone the skin from Steve Job's rear end, and they planned to use this as the material for the next range of Apple products. :)

[Ben]

If they could, that would be a hard material indeed.

[The Mullet of G]

Maybe they could also use it to bulk Jobs up, as it looks like someone put a set of clothes on a stick man. :)