There have been a plethora of rumors about Apple releasing a budget iPhone fashioned out of plastic. We’ve seen purported images of the device as well. Its actually not the first time that Apple has used plastic for its iPhone, the material was used up till iPhone 3GS. iPhone 4 brought the combination of glass and aluminium that exists to this day. It appears though that the company is looking to expand the use of plastic in its products. A new job posting requires an experienced plastic materials engineer who would serve on the iPhone/iPad materials team.
The responsibilities of this job include development of new plastic materials and processes to meet aesthetic and structural requirements of various part designs. This is considered to be a hint that the engineer in this position would be required to do more than just design internal plastic parts that are already used in a number of Apple devices. Its unclear right now if the company plans on making some of its other products out of plastic, such as the iPad. Apple has prototyped a plastic iPad in the past, but such a tablet is likely to be out of question, since it already offers the low cost iPad mini which doesn’t compromise on the use of aluminum for its shell.
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