“Bloomberg reports Apple will launch two larger screen phones next year but the more significant aspect of the report is the likelihood of an iPhone with a curved scree,” Haydn Shaughnessy writes for Forbes. “The Wall St Journal picked up on it too – it means, most likely, that Apple will be transferring its screen technologies from LCD to OLED (organic light emitting diode).”
“The bigger story, however, is the loss of OLED technologies to the US economy. OLED is essentially a US technology baked in the labs of Kodak. You can read the Wikipedia entry here and my account of it here. The desire to create and build flat panel displays in the US goes back to the 195os. Much of the technology was developed in the Kodak labs during the 1970s and 1980s,” Shaughnessy writes. “But Kodak overpriced the licenses for its florescent OLED technologies and set off a scramble for patent workarounds. Samsung joined in both parties (licensing from Kodak and looking for ways round those licenses). It set off on a ten year odyssey to make OLED work at scale and to promote alternatives to Kodak’s patents.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple developing two iPhones with bigger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch curved displays for Q314 – November 10, 2013
Bloomberg says it, Bloomberg wills it into existence.
Sounds like bull to me…
iPhone 6 will be a game changer …..
The curved display does not mean banana phones that solve nothing.
It means the glass will curve around the edges of the device.
It’s Haydn. If he says it, take it with a freaking truckful of salt.
No no no… by all means, Tim Cook, please continue to do the opposite of what people want you dumbass!
Did alright for SJ but then he knew most people are dumbasses as you prove so succinctly.
What exactly is a curved “scree”? Whatever, I’ll probably buy it!
Scree = “a steep mass of detritus on the side of a mountain”
“Samsung joined in both parties (licensing from Kodak and looking for ways round those licenses). It set off on a ten year odyssey to make OLED work at scale and to promote alternatives to Kodak’s patents.”
Samsung HONOURED patents and INNOVATED ways around them? Doesn’t sound like Samsung to me – not by a long shot.
After reading that I mentally threw out everything I had read in this article. Of course stating what Apple ‘will do’ already had me reaching for the bin…
Apple got the curved screen patent last year so this isn’t news. Same old “big screen” screed they keep pushing. Bigger screens are crap, they don’t sell, just look at samsunk. All the articles and commercials in the world can’t save it…
A curved screen is nothing but a gimmick with no substance whatsoever, a bigger screen however might be useful to people who use their phones more for internet access and less for talking over a cellular network – something not even SJ could foretell when the original iPhone was introduced.
Doubtful. Why does a big-screen iPhone need a curved display? So that the too-big-to-be-useful screen wraps around your leg, when you put it in your front pocket. When you are using the iPhone, making the screen curved has zero advantage. It would actually be useful with a huge screen, like the 27-inch iMac, because a gentle curve puts the screen surface at a more uniform distance from (and angle to) the user’s eyes. But an iPhone screen (even a BIG one) is too small for that to be relevant.
AND, I don’t think there will be an “iPhone 6” with a larger screen than the current 4-inch. These “experts” seem to believe Apple will “finally” have a huge screen iPhone, as if something technical has thus far been preventing Apple from producing a large-screen iPhone. That’s moronic… In the real world, Apple is making a design CHOICE by not creating an iPhone that is ridiculously large. Nothing has changed to make Apple want to alter that CHOICE for iPhone 6.
A possible reason for a bigger curved screen on a small device may be to lessen the distance between edges for one handed use…
Yes your thumb and finger both follow an arc when swiping – much more natural.
But how will this fair on reflections / distortions? And to downgrade to the garish oled (I’ve seen in android)? I couldn’t do it.
Gorilla Glass have already demonstrated an anti-reflective coating that effectively makes the glass surface seem to disappear.
AR coatings have been used on spectacle lenses for years, what’s surprising is why it’s taken so long for it to be used on phones and tablets.
Yeah Ken, there will be a larger screen iPhone. Not quite sure why you don’t understand that? Now that they have had a second run on the iPhone 5/5S size to maximize profits of course the next phone will be larger. I sure hope you’re around in about 10 or 11 months.
Yeah, just like the plastic iPhone 5c was going to be the “cheap cheap cheap” iPhone, right? I’m surprised YOU ARE still around after that embarrassing SURE THING that wasn’t. 😉
The iPhone 6 may have a larger screen. My guess is “no.” I think the huge screen phone that does not fit in your pocket, and can’t be used comfortably with one hand, is a “fad” that has passed.
Yeah I’m still here Skippy. Cheap is a relative term. And you still don’t understand that a larger iPhone is not a fad. Clearly Apple misjudged the market or they would have had the larger iPhone by now. I hope you don’t disappear about this time next year when the iPhone 6 is released. Will all want to know how you like the larger form factor. But my guess is that they will retain the 5S size for a couple of years for people like you with small hands.
LOL. You sound like Obama. You must think “period” is a “relative term” too…! 🙂
I think the ridiculously large phone “fad” reached its peak about a year ago. It was an excuse, disguised as a novelty, for Samsung (and rest of the Android collective) not being able to miniaturize as well as Apple. The “novel-ness” has worn off, and people see how ridiculous they look holding this humongous phone to their head, fumbling around to use it when the other hand is not free, and trying to stuff it into their pocket. The trend going forward is sleek, light, and convenient, NOT cumbersome, hefty, and clumsy.
In fact, I want Apple to release a SMALLER alternative Apple phone, not a larger one. I want a sliver of a phone that I can’t even tell is in my pocket. I do most of my “computing” on an iMac (and now also iPad). I don’t need my phone, that I carry everywhere, to weigh me down with excess capabilities that I don’t use 90% of the time.
However, we will see a larger Apple device with phone capabilities. Apple will simply add phone features to iPads with cellular, to be used with new wireless carrier options, for those who want a much larger device that happens to make phone calls.
“The trend going forward …….”
Jeezus Kreyest. As opposed to? The trend going backward?
I was right there with ya until this endlessly regurgitated techno babble showed itself. Going forward, Moving forward, etc. when referencing the future. Faak me. I guess the word future is too hard to use. Thanks Balmer. You’ve infected an entire generation. Ironic!?
Nitpick much???
Take a pill, muffintop, Apple will still make a phone to fit in your skinny jeans pocket. In fact, the little ones will become your desired “cheap cheap cheap” models once the bigger ones take over the flagship role.
Apple won’t make a bigger screen iPhone.
The form factor is near perfect for one handed use. The iPhone is one of the few smartphones on the market today that you can text while holding it with one hand.
Golden rule of great product design – form and function have to be practical and work together.
Not everyone’s hands are the same size — not even close.
Golden rule of great product design — form and function have to be practical and work together FOR ALL PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS.
That’s why all automobiles have adjustable seats, adjustable mirrors, and so forth. They also come in all shapes and sizes. Why? Because different people have different needs and capabilities. Not a hard concept. Different size iPhones do not in any way violate your rule for great product design.