Apple Imagines An iPhone That's All Glass And All Screen, All The Way Around

Apple just published a patent that imagines what an iPhone would look like if the whole phone body were a wrapound screen.

Here's what Apple's drawing looks like, via Patently Apple:

Patently Apple's summary of Apple's patent filing:

Today's invention focuses on the flexible wraparound display that could be fashioned in aluminum, aluminum and glass or a fully transparent design. This future iPhone design won't have any physical buttons so controlling the audio on the iPhone will simply require you to hover your hand over the side of the display to temporarily illustrate the controls. The new design could also produce 3D visuals through its unique dual display design. This is certainly one of Apple's hottest inventions of the year.

Neat, right?

OK, but keep something in mind.

Apple files all kinds of patents for gadgets and technologies that never actually see the light of day. Apple does this to keep its options open. The rule is: think of an idea? Patent it. Before Samsung does.

So, the image above could be a preview of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 7 – or it could be a total red herring.