Apple’s Pro Display XDR stand came under fire for its $999 price tag when the monitor was first announced. So it’s probably best not to ask what Apple might charge for a dual-monitor stand after it was today awarded a patent for the design …
Apple filed the patent application back in 2019, explaining its reasoning.
Computer device designers often desire to control positioning of a computer monitor or similar display at whatever height and orientation are best suited for the needs of the user. A stand can position the display to accommodate users and desktop surfaces of different heights, sizes, and postures. The stand can allow the user to adjust the monitor with little expended effort.
While various existing display stands provide tilt, rotation, and vertical height adjustment of monitors, these features often come at the expense of being convenient and natural to use. Many require the user to deal with significant friction or hysteresis that makes adjustment difficult, awkward, and time consuming. Such issues impede the stand from having a high quality, satisfying user experience. These issues are compounded when the display stand must support more than one display. There is, therefore, a constant need for improvements to stands and supports for electronic devices.
The design is intended to allow easy but very fine-grained control.
A new patent filing from Apple shows how the company is working on developing a dual monitor stand for the Pro Display XDR. The current Pro Stand is an elegant yet expensive accessory for the Pro Display XDR, and this patent filing shows how Apple might take things up a notch.
As first spotted by Patently Apple, this patent was first filed back in March of 2019 but only published by the US Patent & Trademark Office this week. The stand depicted here would feature two legs on the ends, supported by a horizontal bar across the middle.
The patent describes a display stand has two spaced apart legs connected by a horizontal support bar that is attachable to multiple displays. Carriage assemblies allow the stand to adjust the vertical position of the displays, shuttles and rails allow the stand to adjust the horizontal positions of the displays, and a central joint on the support bar allows the stand to adjust the angle between the displays.
Apple explains that this dual Pro Display XDR stand would provide users more fine-grained control over the placement of their displays than using individual monitor stands.
“These individual stands or arms unnecessarily take up large spaces, are often aesthetically unpleasing, overcomplicated, and have inefficient redundant mechanisms. When multiple displays are used on independent arms, they can be difficult to align in a smooth and precise way due to inconsistent counterbalancing and arm lengths. When multiple displays are used on a single support, they cannot be effectively adjusted relative to each other about a vertical axis.”
Patently Apple notes that the patent was granted today.
Three years on, Apple appears to have an even more advanced display in the works.
9to5Mac also exclusively reported that Apple is in the works on another display, this time, it could replace the Pro Display XDR with a 7K panel.
While it’s unclear whether the new Apple Studio Display is a replacement for the Pro Display XDR or a new option in the lineup with distinct features, people familiar with the matter told 9to5Mac that the new display has a 7K resolution.
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