Smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II, Nokia's Lumia 920 and Apple's iPhone 5 have dominated storylines for the better half of this year. These phones all feature today's latest and greatest technology in one form or another.
Many people looking towards what the future holds, however, have their eyes set on one emerging technology that's likely to be a big game changer: flexible displays. We've profiled the technology and even prototypes over the past year but we are now hearing word that Samsung is moving forward with plans to mass produce a flexible display for use next year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung is in the final development stage for their flexible display for mobile devices. The component is being built using special plastics rather than glass, a move that will ultimately make the screen more resilient to damage and weigh less than today's glass displays. Panels will use OLED technology, the same kind that's already used in a number of smartphones and television sets.
Late last year we saw a demo of a flexible phone prototype from Nokia that would allow users to physically bend the handset to manipulate onscreen images and interact with it.
Samsung vice president of display unit Lee Chang-hoon said they are currently sampling the displays with a select number of customers. He said a release date for a consumer product using the display has yet to be determined but the article suggests they will be ready by the first half of 2013.