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Apple is working on a new dual-screen stand that can mount some Pro Display XDR monitors, a patent application that was granted on Tuesday indicates.
The Pro Display XDR is a professional monitor for users who need the highest available color accuracy and resolution. Users can opt for a VESA mount or a $ 999 stand that caused a stir when it was announced in June 2019.
The problem with that stand, of course, is that it only supports a single Pro Display XDR. In a patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on December 3, and granted on June 28, 2022, Apple gives details of a dual display that is presumably intended for the Pro Display XDR or a similar future monitor .
The patent, entitled “Dual display stand”, details an inconspicuous mounting solution that can provide “vertical, horizontal and pivot degrees of freedom for multiple exhibits.”
Apple first notes that existing exhibits often “come at the expense of being convenient and natural to use.”
“Many require the user to deal with significant friction or hysteresis which makes adjustment difficult, uncomfortable and time consuming. Such issues hinder the stand to have a high quality, satisfactory user experience. These problems are exacerbated when the display has more than one screen. There is therefore a constant need for improvements to stands and supports for electronic devices, “reads the patent.
In addition, the patent notes that multiple display workplaces often use stands that are unnecessarily large, overly complicated, aesthetically unpleasant, and have “inefficient redundant mechanisms.”
The solution envisaged by the patent is a mounting system with a single horizontal bar to which a screen can be attached. The rod itself, and its rod, can be positioned in a straight or angular configuration. From there, a display mount can provide additional viewing angles through various pivot point options.
“A display stand has two spaced legs connected by a horizontal support bar that can be attached to multiple exhibits. Guard assemblies allow the stand to adjust the vertical position of the exhibits; “adjust the positions of the displays, and a central joint on the support bar allows the stand to adjust the angle between the screens,” reads the patent.
Many of the patents share similar design philosophies to another patent application published Thursday entitled “Display Elevator.”
That patent, filed on the same day as Apple’s dual screen system, essentially describes Apple’s existing Pro Display XDR stand, indicating that Apple developed both the currently available stand and a dual monitor option at the same time. Both patent applications also share much of the same background information.
Although not much different from existing VESA mounting systems, Apple’s patent describes a multi-monitor stand that offers the ease of use and adjustability of the existing Pro Display XDR stand.
The patent list Michael E. Leclerc; Brett W. Degner; Danny L. McBroom; David H. Narajowski; Denis H.Endisch; Kristopher P. Laurent; and Simon J. Trivett as inventors. Most of them are also mentioned in the patent application covering the existing Pro Display XDR stand.
Of course, Apple files numerous patents on a weekly basis, so there is no guarantee that an Apple dual monitor stand will arrive and no indication of when it may arrive.