Samsung bleats 'bout bendy blowers for 2012
Twist and spout
Samsung has announced it will introduce flexible mobile phones next year, with the prospect of bendy tablets and other tech close behind.
During a company financial results conference, Samsung's investor relations chief Robert Yi said: "The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part."
The Samsung executive added that the bendable screen would be implemented on handsets first, with other mobile devices to follow closely behind.
As previously reported, flexible OLED displays - where each pixel generates light - are now available, making the concept a viable option.
Evidence for such was on show down at Nokia World 2011, where the Finnish outfit touted its own flexible mobile phone concept. The Nokia Kinetic prototype allows users to twist and bend the phone as a means of controlling its actions. The company says it could hit markets within three years. ®
COMMENTS
Bendy phones
Sounds like a great idea if you put your phone in your back pocket - being more robust is always good.
I'm not so sure about flexing it as a means of input though. I'll await the first wobble-board app.
Whoa there sport.
I think you'll find a certain fruit company has patented the concept of a human being communicating with another human being via any kind of inanimate object both with and without the use of text.
Further said company has also patented the use of oxygen by animate objects and the concept of sustaining any kind of verticality in a gravitational field.
Said gravitational field being also subect to fruity patent.
Additionall said Fruit company has patented the notion of patents and as a result owns the entire universe. Please leave this universe at your earliest convenience.
Bendy tablets...
Just what Rolf Harris needs to step into the digital era..
"Tie me fondleslab down sport, tie me fondleslab down... altogether now..."
OK, so we can bend the screen ...
... but what about the rest of the hardware? Although flexible PCBs have been around for many years, I have yet to see a flexible IC, and certainly not a BGA (which is pretty much essential if you want to keep the size down).
What about the PCB?
I understand the bit about this new bendy screen technology (well, I don't understand it really, I just accept it :-) ) - but what happens to the electronic bits behind it. The rule was, for years, that any motherboard that you bend at all risks delaminating the layers inside and becoming useless. Is there a bendy PCB technology behind the screen as well?
