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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RE: Why is Apple licensing Liquidmetal? Can you say 'bounceable iPhones?'
JSullivan00 25th Oct
@enzos2 Liquid metal is described as "a unique blend of titanium necklace, zirconium, nickel, copper and beryllium". What makes this alloy different from other alloys? It doesn't crystallize; basically meaning it doesn't break easy.
Perhaps Steve Jobs really, REALLY liked using Liquidmetal golf clubs!

On a serious note, does anyone know of its insulating properties? Liquidmetal is described as "glass like" which might make it a more durable insulator than "gorilla glass". Unfortunately, metallurgy is not a subject I studied in college.
@kenosha7777
I'm not a Metalurgist myself, but I do know that this isn't glass like, it literally is a glass made of metal - the properties of metals are determined by their crystal structure, however this type of metal is made in such a way that it doesn't have a crystal structure, and instead like glass is technically a liquid that's been cooled far below it's normal solidification temperature without being allowed to truly change back into a solid. That gives it it's unusual properties, but I have no idea what it might do to electrical conductivity.
@enzos2 Liquid metal is described as "a unique blend of titanium necklace, zirconium, nickel, copper and beryllium". What makes this alloy different from other alloys? It doesn't crystallize; basically meaning it doesn't break easy.
Interesting proposition, but would I really want my iPhone caroming about should I accidentally drop it?
@dheady@...

Flubber iPhones happy
right? Seriously though i wonder what happens to the consumer electroincs that are already being made with it prior to the deal, including the samsung smartphone shown on their web site. will that pic be coming down fast?
@Johnny Vegas

Are those products already being made with liquid metal - or examples of what could be made? The site is a little unclear.

Sorry - just read the PDF below - yes these are already in production, so they will have to be made under licence to Apple now.

The PDF also explains that the material cannot form the usual crystal arrangement due to rapid cooling - so this is the same as liquid nitrogen ice cream happy

All ice cream is creamy because it is not allowed to form crystals due to physical breaking of the crystals. Liquid nitrogen ice cream fails to form crystals due to the rate of cooling.
AMORPHOUS
METALALLOYS
FORM LIKE PLASTICS

http://www.liquidmetaltechnologies.com/news/AdvMatProcess.pdf

Imagine what Jony Ive could do with a high strength metal that forms like plastic?

No more tedious and time consuming cutting of aluminum blocks for MacBooks.

I think it is all about making more beautiful and unique products out of metal while reducing costs of manufacture. JMO
Next week Steve Ballmer will officially announce that Slate 2 will be made of LiquidMetal and he will hold up a hollow cardboard 'device' with a picture of a computer screen glued inside.
1 Vote
+ -
Somethings wrong with this blog....
i8thecat 10th Aug 2010
Oh.. It's missing a raving lunatic anti-Apple troll post... I think they are still dumbfounded that non Apple products are not going to have the cool new liquid metal...

Here.. I'll help them out...

WHAT THE $#$^% #%$&% ^$$@#$ @Q*&*!!!!!
That damn Steve Job Messiah is monopolizing liquid metal just so he can walk on it for all his rabid fan followers... Steve Jobs is trying to control the liquid metal industry!!! It's not fair and we should all sue him. And anyone who buys Apple liquid metal is a mindless messiah following poo-poo head... But everyone knows you can't make phone calls with iPhones... None of them work... All those millions and millions and millions of iPhones and iPads are just iToys and they don't really work... And it doesn't matter if they have 300K+ apps.. Apple doesn't give you choices, other than the 300K+ apps, you don't have choices and it because Apple is a secret Nazi organization and they are trying to control the world and steal all my thoughts and I have to wear a tin foil hat to stop them from stealing my thoughts with their iMind-stealer-thingy... And they will control you and the quality, and that is a monopoly because its not fair trade because Microsoft can't control quality because everyone and their brothers and mothers make POS PC hardware and is not fair to sell something and force me to sign a EULA by holding my pet goat hostage and feeding him all my red shirts right off the clothes line where he can cough them up and flag down the train.

Anyone want to squirt me with a Zune song??? Anyone???

Dahhhhh!!! Nobody wants to play wif me!!!

There... Much better... Now it feels like a Apple blog...
-1 Votes
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@i8thecat Sounds like the speech of the media moghul...
@i8thecat Brilliant! Thank you... you have made my morning... especially the goat...
wow.... Whatever it is on I want it.
@prof.ebral what the video or goof-ball "i8 poon tang" boy up there?
0 Votes
+ -
Apple is Skynet?
Frankmjr 10th Aug 2010
Liquidmetal?!? I saw what happens with that in Terminator 2!! Steve Jobs didn't beat his illness. He was replaced by a machine and is going to destroy humanity!!

Seriously though, the technology looks very interesting.
@Frankmjr LOL - now that was funny
Sounds like "flubber".
Great material for the frame but this doesn't solve the problem with the display surface which current made of easily breakable glass. You can't truly make a thing to hit the area where you like and unless you make the a cover over the display or make the display into a clamshell where this material will protect the display if you drop it. Maybe they can engineer glass or other clear material to be nearly flexible as this metal then you have something.
0 Votes
+ -
Probably not worth it
thomasrutter 10th Aug 2010
I've owned a USB stick (Sandisk Titanium U3) made of this trademarked alloy for years now. It seems pretty sturdy. However, I don't think it was worth the money.

The biggest problem is that storage amounts have gone up so much since I bought it. 1GB is only tiny these days.

So there wasn't, in hindsight, much use in paying premium for such a sturdy metal when the device itself would be out of date in a couple of years.
0 Votes
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RE: Why is Apple licensing Liquidmetal? Can you say 'bounceable iPhones?'
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
Decent submit ?C I've been struggling employing this for rather some time nflshop and it is actually remarkable to ascertain this details.

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