Apple owns the patent for a 360° phone screen.

In 2013, Apple was granted a design patent for a smartphone with a 360-degree capacitive screen. They haven’t acted on it, and in today’s competitive landscape where smartphone providers compete on the basis of screen size, I felt this would provide a competitive advantage for Apple. This design is heavily inspired by the setback design of the iPhone 4—one of my favourite product styles to date.

There are two types of innovation: problem-driven, and possibility-driven.

This design is 100% possibility-driven. No one asked for a 360° phone screen. Upon release, very few apps will even utilize the new real-estate. However, replacing buttons with screen creates endless user-experience possibilities.

When the first iPhone was released, it sported a full-length screen and no hard keypad. No one asked for this, yet today we understand the benefit of it. Today we can watch full wide-screen film on our phones, and house multiple keyboards and languages. We can even “Swype” our text. No one asked Apple to eliminate the headphone jack, yet AirPods outsold iPhones that year. Possibility-driven innovation creates the foundation in which innovation can occur in the future.