Why Was This iPhone Never Produced?

Apple has changed the iPhone design many times over the years. Yes, Apple’s design changes have been much less frequent and minimal compared to its competitors such as Samsung and Huawei, but its loyal iPhone The majority of users argued that it was better to make small changes to the design, as they already liked the current design and a major change could change their usage habits. Maybe they didn’t want to make Apple say anything, we don’t know…

Although Apple actually makes small touches to the design, we have seen crazy iPhone concepts before every iPhone launch. However, since the iPhone 6, Apple has become more conservative in design and the number of concept designs has decreased significantly. The biggest design change expected from Apple these days is Moving FaceID under the screen and it comes with a screen with dot holes, just like Android phones. Years ago, we were dreaming of seeing much more innovative designs, but it would not be wrong to say that one of the concepts that went viral remained in our hearts.

The concept iPhone that excited us all for a while was as follows:

If you are old enough and have a slight interest in technology, you must have seen the iPhone concept above at least once. This concept, where the iPhone 5 design meets the “edge”, that is, curved screen, was the dream of many people in those years. However, as you all know, Apple never released such an iPhone. Okay, Apple, almost everyoneEven if it comes out, let’s buy it!Why did he never choose a design that he said was “”? There are 3 main reasons for this:

• R&D
• Cost
• User experience

Producing an iPhone with this design is almost impossible even today

Samsung’s first curved screen phone Galaxy Note Edgewas introduced 10 years ago today. Samsung continued to use curved screens, albeit to a lesser extent, for 9 years until the Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, as you can see in the image above, Samsung was using screens with much wider angles and minimal curves. Moreover, Samsung has also reduced the amount of curvature on the screens with each model.

In the shared concept, we see a narrow-angle curved screen. Nowadays, even the screens of foldable smartphones cannot be folded to such a narrow angle. Therefore, such a curved screen was not available 8-10 years ago. It was probably impossible to produce. Even if it were possible, it would require extremely extensive R&D work, which likely means Apple would have to spend billions of extra dollars. This fact brings us to the second article.

The price of such an iPhone would be much higher than “normal” iPhones

Although many people first focus on features such as camera, storage space and processor when looking at a new smartphone, the most expensive parts of smartphones are their screens. In other words, the factor that most affects the price of flat-screen iPhones currently on sale is their screen features. Using OLED panelDetails such as offering high refresh rates push up iPhone prices.

As you can imagine, curved screens are much more expensive than standard screens. Moreover, as you can imagine, a narrow curved screen that has never been produced before would be much more expensive. Apple will either reduce the profit margin and reflect this cost difference to the prices in a minimum way, or it will reduce the cost difference 8-10 years ago. Even today’s iPhones are an expensive iPhone We would be faced with. As you can imagine, this wouldn’t make any sense from a business perspective.

Such an iPhone has never been produced, because why would it be?

When you examine the concept carefully, you can see that there are extremely wide frames in the handset and TouchID section. This is perfectly normal because phones with end-to-end screens had not yet been released in those years. Well, while this is the case, Apple’s design work Should we get rid of thick frames or develop curved screens? Would focusing be a more logical choice?

Let’s stop and think. How would it benefit you to have a screen next to the phone you use? On this screen, you cannot browse social media, message, watch videos, use the camera, play games… So What will this screen do? It will probably offer virtual buttons instead of physical keys. Of course, in this case, you will need to turn the phone sideways to make sure you are touching the right place even to turn the sound on or off. In other words, the user experience will decline rather than improve.

Apple chose what makes sense for most of us and turned its focus to increasing the screen-to-body ratio, and we moved from the bulky design of the iPhone 7 with thick bezels to the large screen of the iPhone X. Considering how much a wider screen improves the user experience, at least the concept that is the subject of this content suggests that an ultra-curved screen like the iPhone is not necessary. We are convinced. Samsung must have been convinced of this, and it said goodbye to curved screens completely with the Galaxy S24 Ultra.