[Unsinkable II]

Interesting:

DSLR mini-panic: Apple interchangeable system of sorts for iPhone [patent application; updated] - 1001 Noisy Cameras

[Aegon]

1001 Noisy Cameras shouldn't analyze patents. Awful.

The lens isn't interchangeable. The case includes add-on stuff, like a close up filter, a lens hood, and an IR cut filter. So the case acts like the screw threads of an average lens.

[frank]

I have one set of add-on 'lenses' for phone cameras, including a fisheye, a wide angle and a tele angle attachment. They work pretty well on my iPhone4, very fun to use too.

Seems Apple's patent (application) is more complicated than a simple add-on though.

[Aegon]

The claims are right there to read. Dependent claim 5 and its dependent claims also add power and electrical control so the add-on stuff can include image stabilizer, zoom, shutter, and flash. Claims 12-22 substantially mirror claims 1-11 using means plus function language. Claims 23-24 cover a method of assembling the dumb case and the electric case (i.e. similar to the scope provided in the apparatus of claims 1 and 5).

Personally, I don't believe that anything modifying the optical characteristics that requires alignment/centering/precision will be useful. The tolerances of cell phone cameras are just too tight and the lens assemblies are assembled as a unit with precision instruments, so having a case-mounted add-on is pretty much limited to simple extras, such as filters, hoods, flashes, toy add-ons (with correspondingly diminished quality expectations), and maybe even the shutter.

Whatever gets allowed by the patent office may be integrated into an Apple case so that nobody else can exactly copy the design for a limited period. I doubt anything distinctly useful will come of it, but Apple has a reputation for surprising everybody with something useful that we can't live without.

[Unsinkable II]

Thanks for putting it into English!