Well that’s what the patent suggests. A recently published patent application discovered by MacRumors reveals that Apple is investigating the use of solar power in versions of their mobile devices — both handheld devices and portable computers.
Apple is planning to place solar panel under the LCD screen that could be used to provide additional power. The solar panel would absorb ambient light that passes through the LCD screen of the device.
This is not the first time some one has tried solar panels with a mobile device. Integrating solar power into a mobile device holds the enormous potential of extending battery life significantly. However, successfully integrating solar panels into these small devices is not without its challenges.
The major issues described are the limited area available to solar panels, durability, and the “wasting” of space on a portable device. It is due to these problems that solar power has not found its way into mobile devices, not just from Apple, but from all manufacturers.
IPod screen sizes are increasing, but so too is the load on batteries following plans for GPS and other power hungry features to be added to the range.
The patent application makes no mention of how to get past the screen reflection problem, since LCD screens are highly reflective.
Apple’s not the only one exploring this technology as an old Motorola patent from 2001 describes the same technique. While several limitations to the technique were described at that time, the issues may have been better addressed in recent years.
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