A new kind of device
Samsung and LG Electronics have been teasing the market for several years about flexible displays but for the moment nothing has yet been commercialized. Things may be about to change with the introduction of the first smartphone with a flexible OLED screen in the fourth quarter of this year. OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a light-emitting diode with a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. The idea is that LG has been looking at “flexible and curved solutions” with a phone shaped to reflect the shape of a face when held to the ear. In fact, Yoon Bu-hyun, LG’s vice president of mobile business, said LG Electronics plans to team up with LG Display so as to create a flexible screen for smartphones. The comment was made during the company’s Q1 2013 earnings report, during which the company announced very good numbers for its smartphone division. During a interview on March 2012, Samsung mobile head, J.K Shin, declared that his company is still “far off” from shipping a device with a flexible display because it will “take some time” to perfect the technology. So what about the current situation?
Will all the phone be flexible? Unlikely, because the battery and circuitry should prevent that, but we could see a device like Samsung’s prototype presented during the latest Consumer Electronic Show (CES) on January 2013 in Las Vegas, with bendable plastic screens. However, LG said that it will be able to showcase a five-inch flexible OLED display at the Society for Information Display exhibition on the 25th of May 2013 in Canada. If successful LG could gain an advantage over LCD technologies coming to the flexible screens of its competitors.
Product differentiation is indispensable in order to compete with other companies. The smartphone screen that LG plans to introduce later this year will be made of unbreakable plastic which is considered the first step towards flexible displays. Both Samsung and LG are also working on screens which are designed to be shatterproof and lighter than other types of displays.
Why has it taken so long?
There are a number of manufacturing difficulties which can explain the delay in launching such devices. For the moment there are still no commercially available OLED TVs yet both companies have also been saying flexible displays are on their way for some time now. It seems too early to introduce flexible screens to the market because of technological hurdles and durability. Furthermore the companies are probably wondering whether consumers will actually want phones with a flexible screens.
The Korean war: Samsung vs LG
LG seems to be trying to bring the feature out before Samsung does. By setting a clear deadline on the commercial release of flexible screens it is responding to Samsung’s launch of its YOUM display at CES in 2013, which, while not flexible, allows the curved edges of the screen to be used as notification space through customized software. Samsung’s efforts may have hit a delay concerning notably the protection of flexible displays from moisture and air damage. which would explain the purchase of Vitex Systems in 2012, a company with a patented moisture barrier film that could be applied to flexible screens.
The rivalry goes beyond phones! Last March, Samsung and LG became embroiled in a patent lawsuit in South Korea. LG originally sued Samsung over its “Inconvenient Truth About Refrigerator Capacity” advertising campaign, comparing its refrigerators to models from Samsung. After the Samsung advertisement ran, LG released online advertisements condemning Samsung which now claims in its lawsuit that LG tarnished its corporate image by distributing the advertisements that used lies as part of its advertising strategy. LG also sued Samsung Display back in September of last year saying that Samsung Electronics is violating its OLED patents.
And what about Apple? Apple is also working on bendable or flexible screens. Rumors of an Apple iWatch have been swirling around for weeks. In February, an Apple patent application that described a wearable device with a flexible screen seemed to be the first sort of official confirmation that Apple was at least considering this kind of technology.
Flexible, unbreakable screens; a realistic hope for consumers?
According to Raza Ali, an analyst at Visiongain, the market for flexible display technology will reach $260.3 million by the end of 2013. However, the first wave of smartphones with flexible displays will not have much of an impact on the mobile market until the end of 2015. Why? Because a flexible display doesn’t make much of a difference on a smartphone without flexible components. This innovation will only concern the most innovative of consumers, the early adopters. There are always people who want to be the first to have any new technology but it is difficult to predict whether these phones will have much commercial attraction for smartphone users.
Video on Samsung Flexible Screens
Sources:
- www.theverge.com
- www.etnews.com
- The Wall Street Journal: www.wsj.com
- www.networkworld.com
- www.dailyteck.com
4 réponses à “Smartphones with flexible screens by the end of 2013? First shots in the electronics war.”
I’m not sure if the flexible screen will be that useful especially endurance wise. Will definitely appeal to the Asian market but definitely not Europe or US.
I’d love to have possibility to roll my smartphone in to my pocket. I hope then the screen will be more durable. I dropped my smartphone once and now screen is broken.
I don’t know exactly in which way that screen will be also useful but I’m pretty sure that’s a step in the right direction for the smartphone market.
In my opinion flexible screen will find its place even in Europe and the US.
It is not the case of how useful it will be, but it is manufacturers job to make us think like that.
I think it is very likely that they will find a way to promote that product as one of must-have devices in our electronic resources.
I like the idea of flexible screens. I saw some ads where with flexible screen you will be able to do different things whether you press strongly or lightly on the screen.
This idea reminds me of the new waterproof Xperia Z. Also i’ve heard of invisible screens with solar energy or de-materalized screen like in some movies.
Now almost every smartphone has more or less the same features, so the main focus for companies is to create product differentiation.