Apple has had a couple of patents for foldable devices, and so far none of them have made it to a commercial product yet. But now, it looks like it is filing for a patent for rollable screens as well.
As the patent describes, this rollable display would be made for “an electronic device” in general, so potentially anything with a screen can benefit from the tech in the patent. As for the actual rollable display, it the screen may come with a protective layer of glass that “may be locally thinned in the rollable portion to facilitate rolling of the display”. This would apply “compressive stress” to the outward-facing surface of the glass, which will in turn protect the display from damage when it is being bent while being rolled.
Also noted in the patent is a “reverse bend” when the screen enters the device housing. This means less of a protrusion for the bit that stores the rolled up screen, so it’s more form than function, in a sense. While the Apple patent drawings are simplistic, they do give the impression that it would be similar to the teaser that rival Samsung shared back in 2020, as well as its Flex OLED display tech a year later.. Worth noting is that, in addition to the South Korean tech giant, other companies have also shown off physical products with rollable screens, be they prototypes or commercial items.
As with all patents though, don’t count on seeing an Apple product with a rollable screen anytime soon, if ever. If Apple intends to put out a product with a flexible screen of some sort, it’s more than likely that the foldables will come first, before the rollables. And when such a thing does show up, chances are it will be an iPad variant first, rather than an iPhone.
(Source: USPTO [PDF])
