In March Patently Apple posted a granted patent report covering yet another wraparound display win for Apple. On Thursday the U.S. Patent Office published a continuation patent for this invention. This time around Apple may have shown their preference for the wraparound display style in that it provides a seam at the bottom of the design as noted in our cover graphic as opposed to the circular or triangular models noted below. Apple also added to the patent claims that this is a portable device with wireless communications which translates and confirms that this is a protected iPhone design. Whether Apple ever chooses to go with such a design is only a mystery that the Cupertino gods could answer.

Apple continues to evolve their invention and to ensure that the important aspects of this new styled smartphone are protected they've added new specifics that are presented to you bellow:

• Patent Claim #1: … a rigid transparent display cover structure completely surrounds the long longitudinal axis … first and second edges that meet at a seam.

• Patent Claim #8: … wherein the end cap comprises a speaker port.

• Patent Claim #9: … wherein the end cap comprises a connector port.

• Patent Claim #7: A portable electronic device, comprising: an unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure having a front portion, a side portion, and opposing ends; a flexible display attached to an inner surface of the unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure, wherein the flexible display emits light through the front portion and the side portion and has opposing first and second edges that are separated by a gap; and an end cap on one of the opposing ends of the unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure, wherein the end cap comprises a microphone port.

• Patent Claim #10: The portable electronic device defined in claim 7, further comprising: a printed circuit board surrounded by the unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure; and an accelerometer that generates accelerometer data mounted on the printed circuit board.

• Patent Claim #12: The portable electronic device defined in claim 10, wherein the flexible display is an organic light-emitting diode display, the portable electronic device further comprising: power supply components surrounded by the unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure; and wireless communications circuitry surrounded by the unbroken rigid transparent display cover structure.

• Patent Claim #19: The electronic device defined in claim 18, wherein the flexible display is an organic light-emitting diode display, the electronic device further comprising: wireless communications circuitry; an accelerometer; an ambient light sensor; a proximity sensor; and a camera.

Patently Apple first covered this particular Apple invention back in December 2013. If you're not familiar with this particular Apple Invention, see our original report for the grand overview of this project.

As an example, today we've shown you that Apple has added the "rigid transparent display cover structure" to its patent claims. This is explained in the original report that this represents a "liquid metal" glassy material.

This week's "continuation" patent application 20180120903 was published by the US Patent & Trademark Office titled "Electronic Device with Wrapped Display."

Side Note: This week a popular UK blog by the name of Wearable published a report titled "What patents actually tell us about the future of the Apple Watch" wherein MacRumors Eric Slivka and myself provided information for the report. You could check out the report out here.

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