It's been a hotly and widely discussed prospect on MMi for a long time. One day soon, the rumor mill has repeatedly suggested, we will see the first Terminator-esque liquid metal iPhone.
Well, according to the man who knows liquid metal best, "soon" is still a long, long way away. Dr. Atakan Peker, the man credited with creating and cultivating Liquidmetal, says the technology and economics behind a liquid metal iPhone just don't make sense for Apple right now.
"This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development," Dr. Peker admitted to Business Insider this week. "I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology."
Dr. Peker maintains that hundreds of millions would have to be spent over a period of years to create the facilities and resources necessary to mass produce a liquid metal iPhone. And for that reason, it's likely not on Apple's radar at this time.
Still, Apple retains an exclusive lock and license on the liquidmetal technology. So it is, however, very likely that the iPhone maker will, one day, do more with its possession than just ponder its potential.
"Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes," Dr. Peker confirms."Plastics are low cost to manufacture into complex shapes but not strong enough. Metals are strong but difficult to produce into complex shapes. And glass feels and looks beautiful but is highly fragile. Liquidmetal can combine these advantages and remedy some of these shortcomings."
Source: Business Insider
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