It seems like a real shame to me. A potentially valuable new metal, 2.5x stronger than titanium and 1.5x stronger than stainless steel, and Apple buys exclusive rights and then just sits on it and does nothing. How much better off would humanity be if lots of people could experiment with it and try to come up with creative uses?
That might be a restriction set by the licensing company, not Apple.
And a good idea...why license rights for many years and be left with the company doing nothing with it. My thought is Apple does have plans for it because to have the rights just for a SIM ejector tool is silly.
Many of the posts here assume that Apple and LM are just sitting around. In fact, the little public information that I have seen has shown that they have worked on many improvements, most of which are needed for any commercial use of LM, in composition and manufacture of parts from LM. LM just settled a lawsuit with a casting company (VPC) and amended their agreement with them that frees LM from using them as their only contract manufacturer – does this have anything to do with Apple, I don't know. As mentioned above, LM came out with a new formula that doesn't use Beryllium, a toxic element, in their amorphous metal – sounds important if you want to work with green Apple (remember they got MacPros yanked from Europe over toxic metals). Apple and LM also filed patents a while back on improved methods for making sheets of LM – will this lead to some use for Apple, I don't know. Bottom line, there has been much research and development going on and it is clear that LM has not been ready for wide-scale use in Apple or any other products. I think now they are ready and the fruits of their labors will soon become evident.
It never seems to age, here is the ejector tool I've used since 2008 on thousands of iPads and iPhones, it's a bit scratched and bent with no sign of any corrosion.
I have many paper clips that show no sign of corrosion after many years. Like, every one I've ever handled.
It seems like a real shame to me. A potentially valuable new metal, 2.5x stronger than titanium and 1.5x stronger than stainless steel, and Apple buys exclusive rights and then just sits on it and does nothing. How much better off would humanity be if lots of people could experiment with it and try to come up with creative uses?
Just as all those phone manufacturers were so creative in their development of the smartphone in all those years before 2007…
Maybe by then Apple will create a product that uses it. :no:
It feels right to make the iPhone shell with it. Maybe there will be an iPhone 6m this year, or next?
Apple should call this year's iPhone the iPhone 8. Why? Why not? 8 is a better number than 6. And it will throw down the gauntlet to Samsung, who will no doubt be hoping to being out their Samsung iS6 or something as closely worded to the iPhone as possible.
Comments
Besides a tiny SIM tray, Apple hasn't really made much use of Liquidmetal yet.
They obviously have bigger plans for it, or they wouldn't have extended the agreement.
That isn't necessarily the case.
Apple could simply prevent others from using it.
It seems like a real shame to me. A potentially valuable new metal, 2.5x stronger than titanium and 1.5x stronger than stainless steel, and Apple buys exclusive rights and then just sits on it and does nothing. How much better off would humanity be if lots of people could experiment with it and try to come up with creative uses?
That might be a restriction set by the licensing company, not Apple.
And a good idea...why license rights for many years and be left with the company doing nothing with it. My thought is Apple does have plans for it because to have the rights just for a SIM ejector tool is silly.
Why are you pretending they can’t still do that?
Many of the posts here assume that Apple and LM are just sitting around. In fact, the little public information that I have seen has shown that they have worked on many improvements, most of which are needed for any commercial use of LM, in composition and manufacture of parts from LM. LM just settled a lawsuit with a casting company (VPC) and amended their agreement with them that frees LM from using them as their only contract manufacturer – does this have anything to do with Apple, I don't know. As mentioned above, LM came out with a new formula that doesn't use Beryllium, a toxic element, in their amorphous metal – sounds important if you want to work with green Apple (remember they got MacPros yanked from Europe over toxic metals). Apple and LM also filed patents a while back on improved methods for making sheets of LM – will this lead to some use for Apple, I don't know. Bottom line, there has been much research and development going on and it is clear that LM has not been ready for wide-scale use in Apple or any other products. I think now they are ready and the fruits of their labors will soon become evident.
I have many paper clips that show no sign of corrosion after many years. Like, every one I've ever handled.
Great, so what does this mean for LQMT tomorrow morning? To the moon!!!!
Just the opposite. LQMT is about to be delisted from NASDAQ. ($0.2 last quote)
Why are you pretending they can’t still do that?
I'm not pretending, I genuinely believed that is what "exclusive" meant.
I have many paper clips that show no sign of corrosion after many years. Like, every one I've ever handled.
Handled the same paperclip on a daily basis for almost six years?
Maybe by then Apple will create a product that uses it.
It feels right to make the iPhone shell with it. Maybe there will be an iPhone 6m this year, or next?
Septembers right around the corner, grasshopper ! Not long to wait.:D
Just as all those phone manufacturers were so creative in their development of the smartphone in all those years before 2007…
Apple should call this year's iPhone the iPhone 8. Why? Why not? 8 is a better number than 6. And it will throw down the gauntlet to Samsung, who will no doubt be hoping to being out their Samsung iS6 or something as closely worded to the iPhone as possible.