Samsung is working on new “foldable” plastic-based smartphone screens, according to reports at the World Mobile Congress quoted by Forbes magazine.Analysts from Nomura, Japan’s largest IT consulting firm, said they expect to see Samsung apply unbreakable plastic substrate-based, bendable or curved displays for smartphones from Q2 2012.
The analysts said the first example of this technology would not be in a smartphone screen that folded in half -though that may come in 2013 in a clam-shell like device – but in a screen that folds over one edge of a phone, replacing the usual screen border or “bezel” so that the display continues onto the side (see sketch, page 1).
“We expect Samsung to mass produce such panels for smartphones in 2012,” the analysts said.