Apple granted patent for an iMac made from a giant piece of glass

What you need to know

• Apple has been granted a patent that could allow for an all-glass iMac.
• The patent describes a computer that is made from one continuous piece of glass.

Imagine trying to keep that clean.

Apple has today been granted a new patent for what appears to be an iMac with a continuous glass panel making up its body and input devices.

Spotted by Patently Apple, the new patent describes an "electronic device with glass housing member" and to say it looks futuristic is an understatement. The whole machine appears to be made from glass, including the area that forms the keyboard and trackpad.

This future iMac/desktop PC may include a display coupled to the glass housing member and configured to provide a visual output at the display area. The electronic device may include a keyboard coupled to the glass housing member and configured to detect an input at the input area. Alternative designs show the keyboard being separable.

The whole thing appears to be propped up by some form of metal foot and that seems to be where all of the ports would be housed, too.

The idea of a fixed keyboard is one that will immediately seem like a bad idea to many people, not least because of the ergonomic issues it would post. The patent does allow for a detachable keyboard, however.

Apple has spent years reducing the number of parts involved with its Macs and this could be the next step of that process. It could also be that this patent never turns into a shipping product as well, although we will all have our fingers crossed that isn't the case.

Could the best Mac you can buy in the future be made of glass or is this all just Apple patenting everything its engineers can think of?