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The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern

Why is Apple licensing Liquidmetal? Can you say ‘bounceable iPhones?’

By | August 9, 2010, 8:26pm PDT

Summary: Apple and Liquidmetal agreed to a licensing deal according to a new SEC filing. Now the big question: What will Apple use it for? Bounceable iPhones?

Apple and Liquidmetal yesterday agreed to a licensing deal according to a new SEC filing.

  • LiquidMetal put all the relevant IP into a new company.
  • That new company gave Apple an exclusive perpetual license for using the technology in computers / electronics
  • That new company gave LiquidMetal an exclusive perpetual  license for using the technology in everything else.
  • Apple bought a perpetual exclusive license to use LiquidMetal for electronics.

All that’s great and everything, but what exactly is Liquidmetal, anyway? Basically, it’s “the world’s premiere spring material.” At least according to Liquid Metal technology demo video:

The corporate website boasts that Liquidmetal “is a creator of a new metallic, glass, substance that stores energy much better than stainless steel or Titanium” and has “more than twice the strength of Titanium with the processability of plastics,” and goes on to say that its alloys “are poised to render obsolete current materials technology.”

Now the big question: What will Apple use it for? Bounceable iPhones? Perhaps the new metal back panel rumored to arrive in the CDMA iPhone in January?

Cult of Mac thinks it would be a good guess is for casings in future iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Chime in in the TalkBack.

Tip: Glen Dasilva

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Topics

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve
  • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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