Samsung to launch two new smartphones with bendable screens: report

Samsung Electronics Co is planning to launch  two new smartphone models featuring  bendable screens, including a version that folded in half like a cosmetic compact, Bloomberg reported quoting people familiar with the matter.

The devices using organic light-emitting diodes will be unveiled in early 2017, the report said.

This would give Samsung a head start on Apple.

The second Samsung model would feature a 5-inch screen when used as a handset  that unfurled into a display that was as large as 8 inches, much like a tablet, the people said.

Samsung, the biggest supplier of OLED panels for mobile products, had pioneered the development of new screen formats with the release of its multi-sided Edge smartphones.

Using advanced display technology might help the company win back customers from Apple and boost earnings that had slumped for the past two years.

''This product could be a game-changer if Samsung successfully comes up with a user interface suitable for bendable screens,'' said Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities Co. in Seoul.

''Next year is a probable scenario. Their biggest obstacle was related to making transparent plastics and making them durable, which seems resolved by now.''

OLED displays did not require a backlight which made for easier configuring to fold than it was for Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD).

Both Samsung and LG had displayed prototypes of foldable displays in tradeshows, the tech, however, had not been applied to a commercial product so far.

Rumours of a truly foldable phone had been doing the rounds in South Korea around the time of the launch of the Galaxy S3 in 2012 but it failed to materialise.

In addition to the display, components too needed to be malleable especially the battery, which was even harder to tweak.