Samsung delays flexible AMOLED touchscreen production

Vlad Bobleanta  By on 26 Sep 12

Flexible AMOLED touchscreens seem to be the mobile industry’s latest wet dream. Or at least that of the industry’s watchers. However, this tech hasn’t yet made it outside of testing labs, despite most recently being claimed to be in the Samsung Galaxy Note II. And laughably said to be ‘close to mass production‘ in 2009.

Not so, obviously. So, they say, maybe we’ll see this next year then? Maybe. But Samsung, which is believed to be at the forefront of bringing flexible AMOLEDs to the masses, has had to delay its production of such displays, because of problems with yields.

It’s pretty understandable that with such a radical new technology, things would get messy before they get on track. Undoubtedly, the Korean company is working hard to resolve all the issues it’s facing.

One industry official told DDaily that if Samsung manages to fix things before or in early 2013, we still might see the first smartphone with a flexible AMOLED touchscreen coming in the first half of next year. Galaxy S IV perhaps?

However, this may not happen, because so far Samsung’s only managed to make a limited number of ‘pilot’ flexible displays, and it’s not looking like it will be able to produce sufficient numbers of the displays on the schedule it’s previously set.

So while flexible AMOLED touchscreens are certainly somewhere in our future, it’s tough to say just when exactly you’ll be bending your smartphone’s display like there’s no tomorrow.

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  • http://visionaforethought.wordpress.com/ Oflife

    Don’t forget there are alternatives to AMOLED, such as colour (flexible) eInk. This has the advantage of using significantly less power, but most importantly, as per the Kindle and other eReaders, the display can remain ‘ON’ permanently. This leads to all sorts of possibilities. ;) #persistantdata #owroddenberry

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