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The iPhone will soon turn 20, but the last thing it needs is an all-glass makeover

Opinion
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Steve Jobs loved glass, but this would be too much

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max REVIEW
(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Steve Jobs was a design and materials guy. He grew up around homes built by legendary architect Joseph Eichler. Even if you don't know the name, you're likely familiar with their signature feature: floor-to-ceiling glass exterior walls. Eichler's influence on Jobs can be seen to this day in dozens of iconic Apple Stores around the world and at Apple Park, where the Steve Jobs Theater is, above ground, wrapped in 22-foot-tall glass panes.

Job's love of glass is the reason your iPhone 16 screen is covered in Corning's Gorilla Glass. As recounted in Walter Isaacson's biography of the late Apple CEO and founder, Steve Jobs hopped on the phone with Corning execs and convinced them to start making Gorilla Glass again, specifically for the first iPhone.

The rest, as they say, is history. How, though, might Apple celebrate this history when the iPhone turns 20 in 2027? According to multiple rumors, the iOS-running device is due for a major makeover, one that might include a significant increase in the use of glass.

Glasserversary

According to GSM Arena, for this anniversary handset Apple might do away with the bezel, the thin black bar that currently runs around your Super Retina XDR display, completely. With the glass running not only to the edges of the phone but seemingly spilling over them to the sides, the effect would be as if the handset were made entirely of glass.

This rumored design decision might have pleased Jobs. His love of glass never diminished, and most of his designs were built around the concept of mass-produced beauty. Jobs, according to his biography, once took his team to a Tiffany Glass exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York to show them how to build repeatable beauty at scale.

What made Apple special almost 20 years ago is no longer unique among smartphone manufacturers.

Like Jobs, I appreciate beautiful design and exquisite materials. Job's decision to build the first iPhone chassis out of glass and aluminum is why I had such a strong emotional reaction when I first held the phone in 2007.

What made Apple special almost 20 years ago is no longer unique among smartphone manufacturers. They all use Gorilla Glass and some form of steel, aluminum, or even titanium. The battle for smartphone supremacy is now less about aesthetics and more about features, performance, and photography.

That alone might justify Apple completely overhauling the design for the iPhone 19. But making it virtually all glass is not the right way to go.

Never scratchproof

For as good as Gorilla Glass is (most phones now use the Victus 2 formula, and some add a Ceramic covering for more strength), it's still not as strong as metal, or even as resilient as plastic.

Every phone I've tested and owned has scratches, sometimes significant ones, on the screen. I haven't dropped these phones from a great height or dragged them across concrete, and yet they still have these blemishes.

Most people carry their iPhones in thick shock-proof cases to protect the comparatively fragile front and back glass. Like most smartphones, iPhones remain especially vulnerable at the corners; drop your iPhone just right on the pavement and it could shatter.

Broken glass

Now imagine what it would be like owning a phone that's all but dipped in glass. Glass along the edges, even if they're curved, will be far too exposed. No one would ever dare carry such a phone unprotected, would they?

So why would Apple do this? As I said, they want to celebrate 20 years of the iPhone, and what better way to do it than with a design that's too precious to hold or use. I could see a 'Special Edition iPhone 19', one that's covered in glass and which costs twice as much as the most expensive flagship. Few will buy it, but some will end up in museums and behind more glass inside glass-encased Apple Stores.

Those will be the perfect home for those iPhones, if Apple does insist on building them.

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Lance Ulanoff
Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

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