Ripples from the iPhone continue to spread
We've learnt that, even in this age of bits and bytes, materials innovation still matters
Ten years after the introduction of Apple's iPhone, and the broader category of smartphones, it's worth stepping back to see what we have learnt. As with most major technological innovations, it's brought a number of collateral surprises. First, we've learnt that, even in this age of bits and bytes, materials innovation still matters. The iPhone is, behind the scenes, a triumph of mining science, with a wide variety of raw materials and about 34 billion kilograms of mined rock as an input to date, as discussed by Brian Merchant in his book The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. A single iPhone has behind it the production of 34kg of gold ore, and 20.5g of cyanide to extract the most valuable parts of the gold. Especially impressive as a material is the smooth touch-screen, and the user's ability to make things happen by sliding, swiping, zooming and pinching it - the "multitouch" function. That advance relies on particular materials, as the screen is chemically strengthen...
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