Future iPhone, iPad builds and other iOS devices will be fully-wrapped in mostly glass materials, fused with other covering components and tempered by new manufacturing techniques to gain flexibility and durability, a new Apple patent showed.

If Jony Ive, listed as one of the patent inventors, would have it his way, the new technology would be unleashed with the upcoming iOS 7-powered devices. But since the patent was only filed August 2013, glass casings on iPhones and iPads will have to wait one or two build generations.

For now, the new device housing system seems to be marked improvements from the one utilised by Apple with the iPhone 4S, its front and back plates made of glass. But the 4S drew flak for its fragility with many users having to bear cracked screens and back covers with slight pressures applied on the device or following a nasty fall.

This wouldn't be the case with Mr Ive's invention, according to Patently Apple. "To ensure satisfactory robustness, it is generally desirable to form device housing structures such as cover glass layers and housing surfaces from structures that are sufficiently strong to prevent damage during accidental impact events," the same report said.

In application, iPhones and iPads will have solid glass covers protecting the front face of the gadgets although the back plates or even the sides can be made of glass materials, either pure of fused with other housing components.

"Further descriptions suggest that while glass display housings could be paired with enclosures made of other materials as on many Apple products, entire enclosures could be also be made of glass," MacRumors said in a separate report.

In some instances, "opaque masking material and coloured glass may be used to create portions of the glass housing structures that hide internal device components from view," which naturally refers to devices' back portions, Patently Apple said.

What is notable about the Jony Ive-led invention is the use of a technique in which placements of components on a device board will be completed first then whole mechanism will be inserted on a semi-finished 'housing'.

The opening will be covered later by a fused end cap, the report said, making for a partial unibody casing for Apple gadgets.

This procedure, however, is mostly applicable on bigger devices such as Mac desktop computers and Apple TV. The patent, according to Apple, covers almost all its product lines.

The exciting device shell technology further pushes Apple ahead of its rivals, specifically Samsung, which still relies on a mix of polycarbonate and glass to house its high-end Galaxy smartphones and tablets.