Apple may make matte black iPhones, but iPhone 15 will not include this

Apple is a bit conservative when it comes to the colours of its iPhone. Its annual iPhone updates often come in subtle shades, though Apple changes things up repeatedly with a handful of its devices by bringing out some bold colours like green and yellow.

iPhones like the iPhone 5C and iPhone XR were offered in rich, stylish colours like red, blue, green, and even coral. For people who don't like flashy colours, Apple also tried to make matte iPhones for a year with its iPhone 7 series but soon stopped. However, the Cupertino-based tech giant could re-create iPhones in matte black, but sadly, this won't include the upcoming iPhone 15 series.

About Matte black iPhones

First discovered by PatentlyApple, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently granted Apple a patent titled "Matte Black Appearance Anodized Part" for creating a matte black finish on anodized surfaces, which was filed for the first time in May 2020. According to the report, the inventors of this technology are James Curran, Aaron Paterson, and Sonja Postak. The patent, numbered 11751349-B2, involves placing an anodized layer on a metal substrate, which is etched in such a way that it develops light-absorbing properties.

"The anodized layer includes (i) an external surface that includes randomly distributed light-absorbing features that are capable of absorbing visible light incident upon the external surface, and (ii) pores defined by pore walls, where color particles are infused within the pores. The anodized layer is characterized as having a color having an L* value using a CIE L*a*b* color space that is less than 10," it states.

The patent further shows diagrams of devices that Apple might offer a matte black colour option, and there are several of them. The patent includes plans for a matte black smartphone, smartwatch, tablet, and laptop. In the past, a matte black iPhone, a black MacBook, a smartwatch, and a matte black iPad could be the first of their kind.

Interestingly, it seems that Apple wants to achieve a black colour with this instead of dark grey or blue, as with several dark-coloured products. Although this seems complicated on Apple products, it will be interesting to see something like this over the next few years.

While not all patents even make it to the development stage, it's fascinating to see the creativity of Apple engineers, especially after recent patents surfaced for a MacBook equipped with a DJ turntable and even a foldable iMac.