Apple’s been rumored to be investigating flexible iPhone, capable of bending and folding without damage, for years now — but it seems that Samsung may beat Cupertino to actually launching a handset like this into the marketplace.
According to a new report, Samsung is planning to introduce two new smartphone models featuring flexible displays, including one able to fold in half “like a cosmetic compact.”
These handsets — being developed under the codename “Project Valley” — could hit shelves as soon as 2017, the same year Apple is expected to introduce OLED displays for the iPhone.
“This product could be a game-changer if Samsung successfully comes up with a user interface suitable for bendable screens,” Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities in Seoul told Bloomberg. “Next year is a probable scenario. Their biggest obstacle was related to making transparent plastics and making them durable, which seems resolved by now.”
Like Apple, Samsung has been investigating these kind of displays for some time (and Samsung’s name has been frequently brought up as a possible supplier for a bendy iPhone). However, the slowing of the global smartphone market seems to be what has driven Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae Yong to finally go ahead with the idea.
Whether it’ll turn out to be a surprisingly neat innovation — a la the Samsung Galaxy edge — or just another gimmick remains to be seen. Color us interested, though!
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Samsung may launch bendable smartphones as early as 2017”
And why would I want a bendable phone? Are they going to make the motherboard stuffed with IC’s and the battery bendable too? Sounds like Samsung is desperate for vying for people’s attention.
If AAPL can’t manufacture “bendable” power/data cables, or glasstic screens that won’t shatter, what makes you think they can make screens that can flex…
Time for Apple Fans to start supporting Ally South Korea, and stop supporting Prison Camp Red China.
Why not use this bendaphone technology to make crack and break resistant screens?
Now that is some deep thinking, and being practical. Bendy screens for the sake of bendy screens is a solution looking for a problem. Bendy screens that can take a hit and keep on going, that is useful. It might put Otter box and other case manufacturers out of business but that’s a small price to pay for a more rugged iPhone.
Bendy screens won’t make the rest of the phone scratch and dent proof so I don’t think case manufacturers will be put out of business.
A folding screen, huh? I have yet to see a material that can undergo repeated folding and unfolding that does not in due course a) develop a visible permanent crease/discoloration along the fold or b) wear out and break in two. If Samsung has actually fixed that small problem, then they have something that’s more than a gimmick here.