When Apple introduced the Apple Watch in 2015, they were bold enough to think that they would be able to persuade the world's elite to cough up $10,000 to $17,000 for Gold models. A year later Apple quietly killed their gold models that failed to sell as hoped for.

While Apple's iPhone X is a luxurious item in the US$1200 range on average, $1700 in Canada, that's likely pushing the limits that fans will be willing to pay for a smartphone. Drexel Hamilton's Brian White, who has a Buy rating and a $208 price target, stated in a Barron's report yesterday that Apple is "taking the iPhone franchise to a whole new level with the iPhone X, pushing the company deep into the ultra-luxury smartphone market."

With that said, don't expect Apple to push their luck with a gold metal version of the iPhone that a CNBC journalist thinks Apple has patented.

Although the U.S. Patent Office did in fact publish an Apple patent application this week titled "Crystalline Gold Alloys with Improved Hardness," the original dates of their work go back to 2013, two years prior to Apple Watch debuting.

But doesn't the patent actually list this gold alloy for use for a smartphone? Yes it does, just like Apple filed a patent for an iPod with a phone dial to make it appear like Apple was actually considering this option for what would become the iPhone. This was a Steve Jobs prank that he brought up during his 2007 iPhone keynote.

Apple does file some patents with the U.S. Patent Office just to throw off their competition. You'll note in this recent filing that the patent doesn't mention using gold for the very product designed it for: Apple Watch.

If the little bit of gold in the Apple Watch cost up to US$1700 retail, then a smartphone or tablet would come in at US$40,000 and a lot more for an iPad. Sorry, but that's not going to happen in my lifetime. It's just not going to happen.

You'll note that the patent also points to "rose gold' and other colors that Apple did indeed offer for their watch, so the context is clear what the patent was really for.

For the last few years Apple has filed many patents showing their work on putting a fingerprint scanner under the iPhone's glass cover instead of the Home Button. Apple's competitors raced to beat Apple to market and some did. Yet the funny thing is that Apple zagged when others thought that they would zig and Apple gave us Face ID instead. There's definitely precedent for Apple doing this to keep the competition off their trail.

So why did Apple file an update to this patent about gold alloys? What's changed here is their patent claims and nothing more. They cancelled their original claims or the first 9 of them and replaced them with 11 new ones. The filing could be for legal reasons; it could be to lower the grade of the gold alloy; or it could be for a future device where gold makes practical sense.

Could it mean an iPhone? – No, but it could mean a ring.

Apple filed for a smart ring patent last year and they've begun to add protection for 'smart rings' in various recent trademarks like this one for the App Store, or this one for ARKit.

Even though gold for a ring is still a long shot, it makes more practical sense than a massive gold iPhone that no one would ever leave their home with for fear of being robbed or killed for it.

Apple's patent application #20170306446 was originally filed back in 2013 and updated in Q3 2017. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

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