“Future versions of Apple’s iPhone, the definitive mobile device credited for taking the Internet beyond the personal computer, might bend and twist,” Kim Yoo-chul reports for The Korea Times. “At least that seemed to be what Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun was hinting at when he revealed that the company is getting ‘huge’ orders from electronics makers for it futuristic lineup of flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays.”
Kim reports, “Samsung, which enjoys a dual strength in parts and finished products, has found Apple to be an odd bedfellow, as one of its biggest customers for screens and memory chips but also a hated foe in smartphones and touch-screen tablets.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Samsung “hates” Apple because the Cupertino Colossus keep producing a never-ending stream of things that Samsung feels compelled to knock off. So much work infringing all of that IP! Plus, they “hate” Apple because Apple keeps paying them billions upon billions of dollars for components every year. Bad Apple!
Kim reports, “The notoriously secretive Apple remains tight lipped about how its future iPhones will look and it’s hard to imagine that its next smartphone, which may or may not be named the iPhone 5, having a rubbery screen.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, um, we hereby guarantee it won’t be called the “iPhone 5.”
Kim reports, “But for iPhones after that, who knows? While Kwon didn’t give out any names, industry sources here believe that Apple is likely to beone [sic] of the handset makers asking Samsung to provide them flexible screens. This makes it hard to rule out the possibility that an iPhone ‘Yoga’ could appear sometine in the future, they said.”
“A Samsung spokesman declined to talk in detail about the plans for flexible OLED screens and how Apple fits into the picture,” Kim reports. “However, another industry official said that Samsung wouldn’t be this bullish about flexible OLED screens if Apple wasn’t sharing its enthusiasm. ‘Apple is the iconic company in the industry that will continue to set the trends. If Samsung finds increasing industry demand for a futuristic product like flexible displays, it’s hard to imagine Apple doesn’t have something to do with it,’ said an analyst from a U.S.-based investment bank.”
Read more in the full article here.
No. Just no.
Agree; phones are not going to be flexible in the coming years at all. At most, screens might be curved. Not much use in it.
Bend over…
Ben? Nice to meet you. I don’t see the appeal in a flexible screen. I’m already carrying something flaccid in my pants.
Will it Blend? and I’m sorry but any screen that folds in half the way they show it will never last – it will eventually break in half, Hell Apple’s hinges on the old Ti Powerbook even wore out.
Too soon to say, but I would love to have a foldable iPad mini that fits in my jacket pocket.
Cheers
I’ll be very surprised if flexible OLED displays are as sharp and color accurate as glass displays calibrated to 6500- or 5000K.
How about a total recall type that we can just stick under our skin too…hmm…..
um…. iWatch
Exactly what I was thinking.
Try carrying a flexible, thin notebook or folder that wobbles. Not very easy to carry hold or store. Try touching a sheet of plastic, it bends away if your press it. Seems like a rather goofy concept to me.
A flexible display may all be well and good…but it’s getting all of those other mobile product components…batteries, chips, processors and the like to bend with them. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but that’s a pretty big ask.
How about a curved display in a visor for a HUD. Watch movies, play games (cool RPGs), work on the big screen without a big screen?
Slow news day…
forget about flexible, bending OLED, apple. you are screw up everything with Samsung. (but finally Samsung won in lawsuit, dumb apple. they thought they could win). do you think that Samsung will sell it to apple? no fucking way. don’t expect. apple will be behind technology. Samsung won’t give them shit about.
Oh Edward! I thought a tsunami of 1 got you.
Edward, I thought you were content to stay in your cesspool. What has caused you to venture out again? You really belong in all that fecal matter, as that’s what tends to spew from your mouth all the time. I’m tired of having to bring the shovel to clean up after your presence here. Please stay where you belong, it will save us all a great deal of work. D=====))))
Note this article is from 2012-05-13!!
Wake up editors 🙂
They know. They’re only interested in hits. They don’t care anymore.
This bendy screen technology could be used in motorcycle helmets for head up displays.
This is old tech, I’ve read about it over a year ago, but I for one am all for it if it looks as clean and vibrant.
What would happen if u dropped it? I would say close to nothing, it would be extremely shock absorbent.