Apple Going Solar For Mobile?

May 28, 2008 By Digital Trends Staff

Apple has filed a patent application for solar panels to go behind the LCD screens of handheld devices — could the solar iPhone be coming?

The site MacRumors.com tracks all things Apple, and they’ve unearthed something very interesting – Apple has filed a patent application for solar panels that would fit behind the LCD screens of handheld devices. According to the site, that would mean that the company wouldn’t need to redesign its devices in order to go solar, and they would be powered by light through the screen.

However, Motorola filed a similar patent application in 2001, according to the TreeHugger blog, and Apple has a history of filing patents on technology it never ends up using. Already this year it’s been given a patent for a touch screen IM interface, and it’s filed at least three others.

Showing 1 comment

Apple and Samsung have big plans for solar gadgets, but industry isn’t ready at 7:19am 27th July 2011 [...] solar cell that could be used as a secondary charging system. And in 2008, the company was reportedly exploring the possibility of placing a solar panel behind the LCD screen, which would allow the [...]