Who is the bendiest of them all? Phone titans Samsung and Nokia are to go head to head in a bid to create the most flexible smartphone displays. Just last week, Nokia unveiled its answer to the flexible smartphone in London, at its “Future Lounge’ which saw the debut of a prototype device that can be controlled by bending it.
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For instance, folding the top right-hand side of the clever screen will command the device to scroll upwards and bending the bottom will scroll down. Although still in development stage, Nokia hopes to debut the flexi-phone, Kinetic, next year.
But phone rival Samsung, who already made public its intention to mass produce flexible OLED screens, confirmed bendy models will be a reality in first half 2012 at earnings call last week.
“The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part,” Samsung’s Vp of Investor Relations Robert Yi revealed at last week’s earnings call.
“The application probably will start from the handset side.”
Previously, it was flagging 2013 – 2014 release date but now it looks like its stepping up the ante as Nokia rivals device gears up for a release next year.
But its not just phones Samsung are bringing bendy technology to, tablets too and maybe even TV’s are to get the flexi treatment.
“We will start with handsets and migrate to tablet PCs and other devices,” he added.
Earlier this year it revealed an AMOLED screen for Galaxy smartphone that could be folded over 100,000 times yet lose only a tiny percentage of screen quality.
Recently reports were also circulating about a bendable Galaxy S II model planned using “rollable [and] bendable” plastic polyimide substrate strong enough to “survive blows from a hammer.”
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| Images from Nokia Future Lounge, London last week. |
However, flexi phone are just part of the war currently being waged between phone rival Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung.
Galaxy maker’s are now the top phone maker by shipment, beating Nokia to the title, according to latest statistics from Strategy Analytics.
Samsung last week revealed phone shipments soared 44% to 117m units in Q3 and shipped approximately 28 m smartphones – beating former king Nokia (16.8m) by 10 million as well as arch enemies Apple’s 17.1m units, losing its palce at the top.
“After just one quarter in the top spot, Apple slipped behind Samsung to second position and captured 15 percent share. Apple’s global smartphone growth rate slowed to just 21 percent annually in Q3 2011, its lowest level for two years,” Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics Director, said.
“We believe Apple’s growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries, and tougher competition from Samsung’s popular Galaxy S2 model.”
However, the analysts did point out the turmoil Nokia engendered by its changeover from Symbian to Windows phone during the third quarter so Q4 should tell more, particularly when Apple iPhone 4S released earlier this month sold 4 million on its first weekend comes into play, and could put Cupertino back in pole position.
“Strong growth was mainly lead by smartphones with regional expansion of Samsung Galaxy S II,” Samsung confirmed at earnings call on Friday.
Solid growth across all segments was also down to enhanced “mass market” models like Galaxy Wave and Galaxy Y Pro and shipments were also up in emerging markets China, South America and Southeast Asia.