I think that was a bit of hubris, not fully tested. This alloy is extremely springy, which theoretically made it awesome for a golf club face, as it would rebound a golf ball better. Turns out though that formulation could crack after repeated impacts with a golf ball.
The big upside is that it is cheap to make into complex shapes. The secondary upside will be scratch and dent resistance.
I think that's 99% of the attractiveness in this application. Apple obviously is fed up with weak plastics, which is why you see so much machined aluminum. But aluminum has a problem of being relatively heavy, and it has to be expensively machined for Apple's needs. A lighter metal that can be effectively injection molded like plastic sounds like Ives' wet dream.
To me, the manufacturing process (ie, molding) is the clear attraction here. Apple can get any form they need from machining of an aluminum alloy or stainless, but even CNC machining is very high overhead compared to using this type of.liquid metal “glass” and molding. If Apple were suddenly to gain 50% market share tomorrow, they would not be able to keep up with demand with their current manufacturing processes.
As for all the strength this class of alloys has: I thought of one (exactly one) application after I posted above and that is the frame/shroud for large thin displays. Think of a notebook with a 20”± screen. No one has complained to date of breakage of aluminum cases. Unless one work hardens aluminum, it it plenty tough for consumer product. The heat conductance of aluminum is an added bennie with modern hot chips too.
What some have complained of is screen breakage as a result of case flexibility, so the possibile other upside here would be the ability to make a very thin (relative to aluminum) shell around a large screen that doesn’t flex so much that the screen fails mechanically.
In the world of gun parts, where machining has been the manufacturing process for over 150 years, a couple of parts manufactures are going to MIM for the smaller parts that are not subject to chamber pressures or that need spring properties. Think of things like triggers, safeties, guide rods, etc. The quality seems OK to me and the reduced costs give the company making mass-production parts a higher net margin after they get set up.
Machining is still my preference tho. I just like making chips. ;-)
Then he should avoid LiquidMetal. It's density ranges from ~7.4 to 8.0 grams per cc, depending upon the alloy. That's right in range with other cast steel alloys, and about 2.5 to 3 times aluminum (and about 4 times magnesium).
Note that casting Al and Mg and AlMg alloys is rather well understood, and depending upon alloy selection, you can get Ym values close to LiquidMetal with about a 3X savings in density.