Flexible display to hit the Mobile market by 2013

Mobile Phones are definitely an inevitable part of our lives and over the years it has been customized based on the certain user requirements. Mobile Phones have evolved a lot from its origin, from the simple handy mobiles to the smartphones to the recent and upcoming new mode - the Flexible mobiles. The thought of making Flexible mobile phone in itself sounds very innovative. Imagine you could fold, roll, bend, and squish it up without damaging your most prized possession. This much rumored and most awaited handset is expected to hit the markets in early 2013. According to reports, flexible phones will be as thin as paper and at the same time bendable as paper. The first type of flexible and rollable display was developed by Philips in 2005.

Some of the top notch companies working on the flexible phones are – Samsung, LG, Sony Nokia, Philips, and Sharp. Samsung seems to be on the top spot and the first one to launch the flexible phone. The technology used in these gadgets varies and some of the most commonly used in their display include – OLED, E-Link, LCD, and Graphene.

• OLED or Organic Light Emitting Diode: OLED can be described as the light-emitting diode or LED that has emissive electroluminescent layer in a film of organic compound and it emits light in response to the electric current. One of the electrodes in this layer will be transparent. OLEDs are mostly utilized to develop digital displays for television screens, computer monitors, handheld games consoles and the latest flexible mobile phones.
• E-ink: One of the biggest advantages of the E-Link display type is it helps in having a longer battery life when compared to the other display types. It also reflects ambient light from the display surface to the human eyes. Though it generally provides a black and white display, it could be altered into color with the help of a filter that has red, green, and blue tints. It is less bright when compared to the OLED and LCD screens. The first E-ink display was developed by the US Company, E-ink in 2006. One of the biggest issues faced while developing gadgets with the E-ink display is its cost. With the high cost factor, most of the flexible phones using this technology are yet to make it to the commercial markets.
• LCD or Liquid Crystal Display: The biggest advantage of LCD is it does not emit light directly, though it consumes a lot of energy. Hence, every pixel is illuminated by the backlight.
• Graphene: One of the flexible display technologies has been invented from a material called Graphene. It is a Carbon sheet with about one atom thickness, transparent, lightweight and above all, highly flexible. These properties make it an excellent contender for the bendable display technology.

One of the biggest advantages expected from this Flexible type phone is that it is foldable, wearable, rollable, and it provides a high score of durability. Mobile phones using this innovative and latest ‘Flexible’ technology is expected to hit the markets by early 2013.

Michaelvk writes for Zco Corporation, one of the largest developers of mobile applications, 3D content and custom software in the world.