Apple Seeking Engineer Experienced In Thin-Film Solar Technology

A new job listing on Apple’s website suggests Apple could be looking to add solar technology into mobile devices. Discovered by 9to5Mac, the listing outlines a candidate that needs to be experienced with thin-film technologies, and someone who will help with the development and refinement of how that tech integrates with electronic systems. This could potentially point to future Apple products having solar charging capabilities.

Apple has in the past filed for patents pertaining to the use of solar assemblies directly in a smartphone display, and the company has already made clear its desire to use panels at its Spaceship campus. Hiring someone on with extensive solar and semiconductor experience could help put Apple on a path toward making mobile devices that harness the sun. Even a device like the fabled iWatch could benefit from the technology, if such a device even exists.

Wanting to implement solar technology into smartphones isn’t the freshest idea, but actually making it work without any decreased usability is the key. Fingerprint scanning in a smartphone was attempted by Motorola a few years back, but the feature never really took off. Now that Apple is on board, fingerprint scanning could wind up becoming the next big trend. The same could be said for solar down the road.

The mere idea of integrating solar tech into a mobile device’s display sounds insane. But seeing, plain and simple, that big companies such as Apple are researching the topic further is encouraging. Does that mean we’ll see it implemented in the next few years? Probably not. But years down the road, imagine using an iPhone (or Android device) that has dramatically improved battery simply because of the sun. That sure sounds good to be.