Samsung to Release a Bendable Smartphone
How many times have smartphone users broken the glass screens on their devices? Samsung hopes to put an end to the common debacle by introducing a flexible, unbreakable mobile phone in 2013. The new device, which is now in the final stage of development, can be bent, twisted and even folded to stick in a wallet. Samsung has been able to create the product by using organic light emitting diodes—OLEDs. The diodes are so thin they can be placed on flexible material such as tin foil.
“Flexible AMOLEDs can help Samsung differentiate its products in a smartphone market where most products offer similar products and functionality,” HIS Electronics Media director of mobile technology Vinita Jakhanwal told Tech News World.
A Samsung source told the Wall Street Journal the company is already testing the new product with a small group of consumers. Other companies are also scrambling to introduce similar technologies to the market, however. Sony has been researching the same technology for the past 10 years and showcased a prototype OLED screen two years ago, although a Sony spokesman told the Wall Street Journal he couldn’t comment on a release date for the product. Likewise, Apple filed a patent for an electronic device with flexible display earlier this year. The patent included features such as an on-screen keyboard that could accommodate concave and convex curves.
If Samsung releases the bendable smartphone in early 2013, the Daily Mail speculates the first phone to feature the new technology could be the Samsung S4, based on the release dates of the company’s flagship phones, the S series.
