Apple Patents Interchangeable Camera Lense on an iPhone

The smartphone is one of those inventions that has completely changed our world. One of the most important things it probably does, is portable camera functionalities that can fit right into your pocket.

Apple recentley filed for something that most of us probably didn't expect. As you can see from the diagram, with this invention, an iPhone user would be able to remvoe the back panel of the device and replace the camera lenses. The patent also depicts that there is a possibility of the panel having dual lenses in opposite corners.

Are we looking at a possible new iPhone 5 feature? It would be nice, but for those of us who aren't photographers, these features wouldn't do much. And let's be a little realistic, smartphone cameras still have a few years before they will be able to replace professional cameras.

There is no possible way of saying whether or not this this could be an iPhone 5 feature, or if Apple patented this so its competitors wouldn't be able to use a similar idea. Almost every single Android phone, as far as I know, has a removable back-panel. What if Apple did this so that 3rd market Android vendors (HTC, Samsung, etc.) wouldn't be able to sell replaceable backings to protect the camera lens on the back of their smartphones?

What do you guys think? Did Apple do this for a possible iPhone 5 feature, or so they can have another excuse to sue competitiors?

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