Skip to main content

Apple’s idea for a futuristic, curved iMac is not at all what you’d expect

Curved screens have become commonplace in monitors these days, but this wild iMac concept takes the curve in a completely different direction.

Apple just received approval for a series of patents for potential iMac products that reveal a new vision for the future of the iMac, including a screen that curves along the bottom instead of the sides as shown in a concept rendering by Yanko Design (below).

This concept has an all-glass body and an integrated keyboard. As opposed to the iMac we have today, where the display and the stand are distinct components, the patent envisions the machine with an all-glass housing consisting of a continuous surface. The illustrations reveal a seamlessly flowing shape defined by the upper portion, lower portion, and the portion where it transitions.
In early 2020, Apple applied for a patent for a modular iMac with a curved glass display. Today, the patent has been granted.

There is another variant shown in the patents that reveals more or less the same shape in general, but instead of acting as an iMac, the company plans on making it function as a display where a MacBook could dock. Patents reveal that this design would also be foldable, which means it would feature the option to be stowed away for easy portability. This imagines a future where people would be able to take a large MacBook display with them anywhere they go.

However, we must remind ourselves that all we know at the moment is from patents that have been released. Patents are not confirmation that a product is necessarily launching. In 2021, there have been Apple patents for a MacBook with no keyboard, an Apple Watch that tracks people’s hydration levels, and an iPhone that functions by blowing on it. Needless to say, we haven’t seen any of these products come to life yet.

Even if the recently approved patents come to life, it’s important to mention that they most probably aren’t going to be released anytime soon. Apple redesigned the 24-inch iMac just a few months ago. Considering that its last design was in circulation for 14 years, chances are that the current design will be here for a while.

Editors' Recommendations

Dua Rashid
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dua is a media studies graduate student at The New School. She has been hooked on technology since she was a kid and used to…
Apple’s next MacBooks and iPads could be in serious trouble
The MacBook Pro open on a wooden table.

Hype has been growing for Apple’s upcoming M3 chips, which are expected to splash down in a slate of Macs and iPads later this year. Yet one leaker has come along to spoil the party and has claimed that we won’t see anything of the sort until 2024.

That idea comes from Twitter leaker Revegnus, who tweeted that there would be “No M3 Mac or iPad for this year.” That will be disappointing news to anyone looking forward to laying their hands on the latest and greatest Apple silicon chips in the coming months.

Read more
Please let this new OLED iMac rumor be true
A student types at a desk on a pink Apple iMac 24-inch M1 desktop computer.

Apple's been coy about the iMac these past few years. Sure, it has the M1 24-inch iMac, but it's gone on pretending the beloved 27-inch iMac never existed.

A new rumor gives some optimism for those of us hoping that Apple would someday revisit a larger, more powerful version of the iMac. The report doesn't come from one of the usual leakers, such as Ross Young or Mark Gurman -- so treat it with a healthy dose of skepticism. But I, for one, am excited about the prospect of this rumor being true.

Read more
The next MacBook Air could come with a major disappointment
A MacBook Air on a desk with an open book in front of it.

It’s something of an open secret that Apple is working on a couple of fresh MacBook Air models, including an all-new 15-inch MacBook Air. Many details about these devices have been shrouded in mystery, but a prominent analyst has just shed some much-needed light on them -- and it’s not all good news.

Posting on Twitter, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo updated his previous predictions for Apple’s lightweight laptop. In the new post, Kuo outlined a slate of ideas for what could be coming next.

Read more