Apple Inc. (AAPL) Has Now Patented a Curve

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) got to where it is because of innovation. It is having trouble staying on top because of a relative lack of innovation. One of the ways to measure a company’s ability to innovate is to check out a company’s patent portfolio. Even if Apple doesn’t always wow us with its latest products, it can still manage to produce a large portfolio, and it keeps adding to it almost every week, it seems.

Apple Inc. has been rumored for months, if not years, to be working on a wearable computer called the iWatch, but there has been much speculation about whether Apple could pull off such a thing without it looking bulky or heavy. After all, like most mobile devices, an iWatch would need a battery, and virtually all batteries for computer devices have been rectangular or square like a box or cube.  And that shape may not necessarily be conducive to a computer for the wrist.

Now, if such an item could be changed from that shape somehow …

In a rare display of speed, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reportedly given Apple Inc. a patent for a curved battery shape, which is now being assumed that it will be set up for an iWatch.

For a patent application filed in January to see approval come this week is a rare feat indeed – there are  plenty of applications that sometimes are not ruled upon for more than a year or two. How Apple was able to get the PTO to act on this application is beyond us, but certainly the speed by which it happened  certainly strengthens the argument that Apple is indeed working on a smartwatch device, and it likely wanted to secure the patent before much of the competition gets their similar products out the door.

It has been reported for a while now that Apple Inc has been working on “non-rectangular” batteries, and no one so far has considered the possibility of such a battery being used for iPads or iPhones, but only for a wearable device. What do you think? Would “non-rectangular” batteries have a future in devices other than a smartwatch? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.