“By popular consensus the display on the iPhone and the display on its main competitor, the Samsung S4, are on a par,” Haydn Shaughnessy writes for Forbes. “But they have different virtues. The Retina is crisp and precise as well as bright. The AMOLED on the S4 has a much richer color gamut. The difference in these virtues though is profound. Color is an essential part of the consumer experience and LCD screens, like the Retina, cannot compete with the rich colors of OLED. Until now.”
“3M’s Optical Systems Division, and nanotech partner Nanosys, are finally bringing their QDEF, color enhancement technology to LCD displays, an advance that promises a 50% increase in the color experienced by users,” Shaughnessy writes. “The technology is twenty years in the making and was expected to be on the market in 2011.”
Shaughnessy writes, “And that brings us to the big complication. Samsung Ventures are an investor in Nanosys, so QDEF could bring further complexity to the Apple, Samsung relationship. More than tha[t] though… Samsung has now launched an LCD version of the S4. Popped up with QDEF technology, it is going to be considerably enhanced by the end of the year, leaving the iPhone in its trail unless Apple acts quickly. Having said that, there’s no reason why this technology should not put Apple back on top, with an awesome display, great color experience and an OS to do it justice.”
Read more in the full article here.