Apple Buys Rights To Casings for Small Electronics

Apple has purchased the rights to develop Liquidmetal Technology's superstrong alloys for small electronic casings, possibly for the iPod and iPad. Liquidmetal technology is already used in some Nokia phones and SanDisk products, but the agreement bars sales to Apple's rivals. Liquidmetal's tech makes possible durable, smaller products.

In a deal that became public this week, Apple has purchased intellectual-property rights to develop Liquidmetal Technology's alloys for electronic product casings. The deal creates a wholly owned Apple subsidiary for that purpose and will allow the Delaware-based Liquidmetal to continue marketing products for sporting goods, jewelry, medical equipment, and defense contractors, but not for companies that compete with Apple.
Tougher Than Titanium
According to Liquidmetal's web site, its engineered designs, developed by a research team of students at California Institute of Technology, are 2.5 times the strength of titanium alloy and 1.5 times the hardness of stainless steel. That would allow the computer giant to make more durable products that are lighter and smaller as it prepares a refresh of its iPod line as well as a smaller version of the iPad tablet. The non-crystalline alloy was first used commercially in 2003.
"As the demand for product 'miniaturization' continues in the electronic casings industry, Liquidmetal alloys enable smaller, thinner and more durable designs," says the company's web site. "Current casings technology is pushed to the limit in supporting these new designs and specifications, especially requirements for larger LCD screens, thinner wall sections, and pure metallic surface finishes for products such as mobile phones, PDAs and cameras."
Liquidmetal is already in use in some Nokia phones and in SanDisk products such as USB flash drives.
Teamwork on Development
Scouting out and forming partnerships with emerging technology leaders is a key part of Apple's strategy, said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis.
"Apple has a long history of using materials and manufacturing techniques to create unique products," Greengart said. "Unlike most PC and mobile-device vendors, Apple designs products with teams of hardware and software designers working together from the outset, which often results in devices where the form and function play off of each other."
Apple made great fanfare of its innovative "unibody" notebook design using a single block of aluminum. It is also suspected to be using super-durable Gorilla glass, said to be extremely hard to scratch, made by the specialty materials division of New York-based Corning for its iPods, but the company isn't telling, citing confidentiality agreements.
The Aug. 5 Apple deal signed by Liquidmetal CEO Larry Buffington was reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday and immediately caught the attention of tech sites that cover Apple news.
Under the agreement, "Liquidmetal contributed substantially all of its intellectual-property assets to a newly organized special-purpose, wholly-owned subsidiary ... granted to Apple a perpetual, worldwide, fully paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee."

Source: http://worlds-tech-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/apple-buys-rights-to-casings-for-small.html