“This week we saw disappointing sales of the ‘world’s first’ curved screen smartphone, Samsung’s Galaxy Round, and to be honest, it doesn’t come as much of a shock,” Lee Bell writes fro The Inquirer. “If Samsung’s apparent attempt at gaining publicity with the tagline, “the first curved display” wasn’t enough to make me think the whole concept isn’t a complete and utter gimmick, then the leaked Galaxy Round sales figures of under 10,000 over a month after launch definitely was.”
“The launch seemed like just an attempt for the firm to steal a march on LG, which just days later announced its first curved screen smartphone, the G Flex, or be ‘the first’ irrespective of what it is the firm’s trying to achieve,” Bell writes. “Don’t get me wrong. There are in fact some benefits to a curved display on smartphones. The small curvature is the key to a series of optical effects that mean light is reflected away from your eyes, thus reducing glare. This is said to improve the readability of the display.”
Bell writes, “I think the only way curved screen smartphones will catch on is if Apple integrates the tech into its smartphone ecosystem as standard and not as an alternative to its flagship, like Samsung has with the Galaxy Round. Consumers trust Apple to provide a limited but reliable choice of handsets, unlike Samsung, which could be accused of drowning the market with devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
What goes around comes around?
Luxury brand lol. It’s a PC, a phone, a music player and a web shop(iTunes). If you think it’s luxury, your clearly deprived.
Well, do you want to drive a porsche or a kia?
Apple products resell, for several years after you bought them. They have a much higher resale rate. Especially their computers. You can’t do that with a windows box.
“the first curved display – and it didn’t sell worth crap!”
What is so special about a curved display? Is there any advantage to having one as far as legibility is concerned?
The only advantage that I see in the use of a curved screen is a very wide large monitor setup. Say, a replacement for three monitors. Currently I have an iMac 27 inch in the center of my set up with a 23 inch monitor on the left side and a 42 inch high definition TV on the right. I have to slant my two side screens in order to see the screens well. We are talking about an 80 inch wide curved monitor, which would be crazy expensive. But then again, I would buy that screen if I was swimming in money.
A curved screen for a small phone is useless, and pretty much awful when used in landscape mode.
I still don’t know what the benefit is. has anyone explained this and demonstrated what it’s benefits are? I mean I am neither for it against curved devices, I just don’t know enough about them.
Marketing a curved display just because it is curved makes zero sense to any consumer. The first question is “Why?”, and Samdung doesn’t provide any answer. It’s more like, “Hey, it’s curved, it’s therefore cool, so buy it!”
The only reason Apple adopting a curved display would work is because Apple would only adopt a curved display it it had a significant benefit to the consumer, and then Apple would communicate that clearly to its customers. Samsung has no idea how to communicate the advantages of new features, it just expects you to buy because the features are there.
Knowing Samsung, they probably curved it in the wrong direction. That’s why it’s called “Round.” The original name was “Bulge.”
I’d have to see one to see if there was a benefit. Wouldn’t it make it more difficult to apply a screen protector or case?
“Consumers trust Apple to provide a limited but reliable choice of handsets, unlike Samsung, which could be accused of drowning the market with devices.”
Gotta love that line!
The effect on the user is the same as the OptiGrab.
From The Jerk
I’d rewrite the headline to “If curved screens are a good idea, then Apple will embrace them”. I personally don’t know what problem this is solving.
Nah. If curved screens were a good idea, Apple would have ALREADY embraced them. With a curved screen you practically ensure that you have a 50% chance of the point of contact after a drop will be one of the four glass corners. Sounds like a dumb idea from the get go.
If Apple someday uses a curved screen, it will be much more subtle, and therefore practical than the extreme curve that Samsung came out with.
Samsung’s was sooooo curved, it was more like a gimmick.
Look at me, I’m CURVED!!!!!!!!!
Who the hell wants a curved screen? I think they look stupid and wouldn’t make anything better.
Except both the Samsung and LG were reviewed on CNET and in both cases the reflections and glare were not reduced but INCREASED.
A product looking for a solution. Apple will do a curved screen when it has some benefit.
Hahaha howaboutanewton
Generally speaking I think we can trust Apple not to use that technology unless there is a real benefit to the end-user.
Prior art was the Princess Telephone.
Apple, Please don’t