Samsung is planning to bring out devices with foldable displays sometime in 2015, according to announcements made at the
Samsung Analyst Day in Korea. Buoyed by the launch of the curved
Galaxy Round smartphone, Samsung will look towards building bendable displays sometime in 2014, before moving to foldable versions towards the end of the following year.
The details picked up
by Engadget and confirmed
by SammyHub suggest that unnamed "Technology Barriers" will dictate the eventual launch of foldable devices. Samsung has already shown off a concept for a smartphone that acts as a tablet when unfolded, in the form of
Project Youm, something which would probably be the target market for such foldable display panels.
During the Analysts Day,
the Wall Street Journal reports that the company mentioned the five areas it was working on, aside from flexible and foldable devices. Curved and phablet devices are joined by wearables, which used an image of the Galaxy Gear and the Google Glass-style device that surfaced last month, suggesting that it could be seriously thinking about bringing it to market. Wearable and flexible devices, along with the Internet of Things, are seen as ways for Samsung's mobile division to grow.
Other points raised during the event includes the expectation that the company will ship more than 100 million Galaxy Note units in 2013, that half of its research and development workforce is devoted to improving software, and that it hopes to build an "ecosystem" of devices that works together with little to no effort by the customer.
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