It seems that smartphones have been taking the same shape since the invention of the iPhone. That is, one touchscreen with a few clickable buttons to interface with it. This standard could change with a bendable screen display, and this is technology that Korean technology companies and competitors Samsung and LG are working on.
Bendable screen technology has always been something of a rumor that most electronic companies have been working on, but Charles Annis, a DisplaySearch analyst, says that Samsung and LG are "the only ones that are doing it". The idea of a bendable screen is like something out of speculative fiction, and movies such as Red Planet have shown us futures where a computer uses a screen that can roll up like a scroll. Last summer, there was a video of a flexible 18-inch OLED display from LG that appeared on several tech sites that received over 1 million hits on YouTube.
According to CNET, Samsung and LG are actively working on this bendable display technology. They also report that Samsung said just last month that some of the designs for device manufacturers are "expected by the end of next year". This means that a finished product should be arriving very soon, and Samsung even has a graphical roadmap for rollable display technology. The graph shows a diagonal line sloping upward, and each rollable display screen getting thinner as time progresses. Unfortunately, there is no dates on this graph.
It is quite apparent that a bendable display will easily reduce the size of a mobile phone or tablet, or even a television. However, there is one thing that all these devices have that is not as pliable: a power supply. There is simply not a way to reduce the battery, especially when consumers demand that devices hold their charges longer.
CNET has also said that these technologies won't hit store shelves soon. Analysts say that foldable displays are far from reaching the mainstream market, with their production being too pricey. These bendable displays would be OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display technology instead of cheaper glass, and it could be difficult to manufacture these products to meet product demand.
So for now, the idea of a flexible display will be a dream, but the idea of it is strong and will inevitably be made real. Unless there is some development from Samsung or LG that we just don't know about, there is no chance that any devices with flexible screens will be unveiled at CES 2015. However, if Samsung is only one year away from developing this technology, it could possibly show up at CES 2016.
