Could rollable phones (and TVs) be the next flip phone?
There was a time when flip phones ruled the world… just ask Motorola. Those are long gone, but LG is working on the next generation of screen technology that could make rollable phones the next most highly coveted genre of smart phone.
If you don’t think that’s awesome, you must be amish.
The new technology shown above is actually an 18-inch flexible OLED display made by LG that was just announced and has the potential to revolutionize what we consider today as “pocketable” or “wearable” tech. This large screen can be rolled up into a toilet paper style cylinder that’s only 3cm in radius, has a resolution of 1200×810, and packs almost 1 million pixels.
LG has positioned this tech in terms of televisions, claiming that the company could even make a 50-inch TV of this kind in the future. I can picture it now:
- Boy: Hey Mom, wheres the TV?
- Mom: Not sure, dad was using it last.
- Dad: Check between the couch cushions!
This technology could arrive sooner than you think, with LG aiming for release of a 60-inch rollable TV by 2017.
We are confident that by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches, which will have transmittance of more than 40 percent and a curvature radius of 100R, thereby leading the future display market
The lateral move to bring this technology from TVs to phones, tablets, and other screens won’t be easy; there’s a lot of underlying modules and hardware in these devices that could make engineering them more difficult. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and based on what we’re seeing above, LG is going to get there.
Remember the good ‘ol days when families would eat breakfast together, dad would finish his cereal, roll up his newspaper, clamp it under his armpit, kiss the wife and kids goodbye and rush off to work? They might be coming back… only that newspaper will be made by LG and there will be just as many moms following suit.