It’s not necessarily a new iMac, but it shows Apple’s thinking.
Apple is known to explore unusual Mac designs, but its latest may be more eye-catching than most. The company has applied for a patent on a desktop Mac design whose main body consists of a single, curved sheet of glass — a wedge at the back could both house processing components and prop up the design. A slot at the bottom center would let you slot a keyboard through, and Apple even envisions the possibility of altering the curve to adjust the display angle or fold the system shut.
One section of the patent imagines sliding a MacBook’s keyboard section through the slot, suggesting this design could also be used for a laptop dock instead of a full-fledged computer.
This isn’t a product roadmap for Apple — we wouldn’t count on a curved-glass Mac like this arriving soon, if at all. There would be technical limitations to overcome like adjustability of the display (folding phones are barely a thing, let alone desktops), and Apple may simply decide that a ‘safer’ design like the current iMac is enough. This patent application does shed light on Apple’s design process, though, and suggests that it’s willing to dramatically revamp desktop Macs if and when that makes sense.
