The US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a number of filings describing new iPhone Home Page and hardware designs. Throughout the years, Apple's design has been crucial in differentiating products from other competitors. This is especially true with its battle against Samsung. The recent design filings explain new schemes for the Touch ID feature and Home Button as well as redesigned icons, flatter UI and other similar features. The descriptions provided by Apple were quite extensive offering more insight on what the company plans to do with its future iPhone offerings possibly the iPhone 6.

First Design

The design patent granted to Apple goes by the number 86322587. According to the patent published by USPTO, the design features a mark showing a configuration on the rectangular handset. The device sports a black face, rounded black edges and a range of twenty-two icons that also feature rounded edges and square bodies. The icons have been positioned in six rows on the handset's screen.

According to a report by Patently Apple, the tech giant has provided an extensive discussion of the first and second patent designs. From the patent description, the first row features a range of icons with light green shade on the top and darker by the bottom, square body and rounded corners.

The three iPhone trademark applications were categorized under International Class 009. This covers the following:

· mobile phone

  • digital audio and video player
  • handheld computer
  • electronic personal organizer
  • personal digital assistant
  • electronic calendar
  • electronic notepad
  • electronic book reader, calculator, and camera

This also means that systems should be able to connect to the Internet sending a variety of content materials like graphics, images and text among others.

Second design and Third Design

The second design goes by the patent number 86322593. According to the patent, the design mark on the iPhones features a selection of twenty-two icons sporting rounded edges and square bodies. They are organized in six rows. The third design goes by the patent number 86322577. It stands out from the first two because it features a rectangular handset with broken lines. To understand how the designs differ, Patently Apple provides images of the patent designs.

In a recent report by 9to5MAc, leaked photos of the iPhone 6 dummy shows tapered edges and a slight gloss. These support claims that the iPhone 6 will follow a similar design structure as with the iPod touch.