Directly from the court hearings of the trial between Apple and Samsung we find out that iPhones with curved screens were designed in Cupertino, but Apple decided not to launch them on the market due to the high production cost. A former designer of the company stated that Apple was extremely interested in producing such devices, but the quality of the screens and the production costs proved to be unsuitable for that period. Of course, in the meantime, technologies have evolved, costs have decreased, but we still don't have an iPhone with a curved screen.
The technology in shaping the glass, the cost relative to shaping the glass at the time, and some of the design features of this specific shape were not liked... The technology at the time had a lot to do with it. The qualities of the glass at the time had a lot to do with it. These are models — I'm trying to remember a time frame — that were before gorilla glass and before a lot of the other factors. My recollection of it was that to get the extruded aluminum design that was applied to the iPod to work for the iPhone, there were too many added features to allow it to be comfortable and to work properly... If you put an iPod up to your ear , the sharp edges, because of the processes, aren't comfortable, and you can't get antennas to work properly in a fully enclosed metal jacket. So each one of those things needed to apply other features that started.
A company must take very seriously the costs and quality of products before actually launching them on the market and for Apple then the risk was not worth it, but that does not mean that things will not change in the future. Google had success with curved screens by launching the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Apple could have the same thing, but it remains to be seen when such a device could reach the market.
