Apple’s Next iPhone to Feature Solar Charging?

Apple appears to be investigating its future gaming-changing feature: solar charging. A job listing on the company’s website, that has since been removed, a few days ago asks for an engineer with loads of experience in the solar industry. This purported engineer would join the ranks of Apple’s mobile devices group and work on “assisting in the development and refinement of thin films technologies applicable to electronic systems.”

This isn’t, however, the first time we have expected Apple to dip its feet into solar tech. It adds some proof to a subject that has been around for a couple of years. In 2009, the company filed a patent for the use of solar products in mobile devices. More recently in 2011,we heard Apple, and other companies like Samsung, have been “evaluating” the use of solar panels in subsequent tech products. We also heard that Apple is probably thinking about who will manufacture the panels.

The main problem with solar power remains cost vs. benefit on smaller devices. Large sums of companies have already produced third-party accessories that take advantage of solar charging for past and existing Android and iOS devices. These products have been very futuristic and a neat concept, but suffer from a lack of practicality. They are usually pretty expensive, quite bulky, and take a while to charge using light. But, to be fair, prices on a solar chargers have quickly fallen over the past decade and make became even cheaper in the not-so-distant future.

Apple’s large solar array at its Maiden, N.C. data center.

Solar charging may have the potential to flourish as a key feature in Apple’s watch, or iWatch, as it has been called in the rumor mill. A patent from Apple earlier this year displayed a product with a wristwatch form factor that could exploit a built-in solar array as an additional power source for the gadget’s battery.

Charging and battery life has been cruising behind for today’s smart watches. And let’s face it, we have got enough things to charge on the daily, like our phones, laptops, and tablets, most of us don’t want to add a watch to that list. However, Quartz has reported that TCL Communications, a Chinese electronics company, is currently testing a technology dubbed Wysips that integrates a half-millimeter thin photovoltaic surface just under the display of the smartphone or watch.

We can see from this that the technology for an innovative and convenient way to enforce solar tech is already upon us. This may lead the way for a svelte and battery-friendly smart watch. Apple, or even other companies that have been more innovative than Apple as of late, may apply this technology and get ahead of the game and really make smart watches more cool and convenient, and maybe even apply solar technology to something we haven’t even thought of yet?

Source: Apple Insider