Modular phones never took off and cases that add functionality are pretty rare – maybe that is because Apple hasn’t taken a crack at it yet. Leakster Instant Digital says that “Apple will invest heavily in official protective cases in the future”.
The goal is to transform the cases into “second touch interfaces”. What does that mean? The leakster is pretty vague about it. Is it a full-blown second touchscreen like LG and Asus have made in the past? It doesn’t sound like it. Will it be a touch pad like the ones we see on iPad keyboard covers? Unclear.
LG V50 ThinQ Dual Screen • Asus TwinView Dock 3
Apparently, the goal is to add new features to iPhone Pros and make them “even more Pro”. iPhones already have the Camera Control, which is a capacitive touch area that serves many functions. It’s not a Pro-exclusive feature and, worse, it’s not particularly popular.
This could be a way for Apple to ditch physical keys on its phones – something that Apple has been rumored to be working on for years now – and replace them with inputs on the case.
Apple has an interesting patent titled “Case with input for electronic device”. Its description reads: “For example, a case can provide an electromechanical touch sensor to provide the user with an input mechanism that does not require actuation of the button of the electronic device. The electronic device, upon detecting the presence of the case, can disable one or more buttons and perform actions corresponding to the buttons when signals are received from the case.”
By the way, the next Pro models are coming in fall 2026, while the vanilla model will be unveiled half a year later.
Source (in Chinese) | Via