As part of their ongoing spate of releases at the CES 2013 trade show in Las Vegas (USA), South Korean giants Samsung, as promised, have revealed the version of their long-rumoured ’flexiphone’ that is expected to hit the market this year, showing off their ‘super-thin plastic’ that can be bent like glass and is also designed with the creation of an ‘unbreakable’ phone in mind.
Displaying their item at the keynote speech of the event on Wednesday (9 January), the company have claimed that their new technology (an organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based flexible display), branded as ‘Youm’, is to be applied to a range of phones, though it appears as if the main ‘partner’ on this venture will be the Windows Phone 8 operating system, as opposed to its previously-rumoured partner Android.
The OLED screens (including a ‘curved edge’ concept for more display room that was also revealed) are noted as being able to create their own lighting, and as such do not need to be backlit in the manner of the more common ‘LCD’ glass-protected screens. It is expected that the first Youm-based phone will be under the Samsung Galaxy branding with the new ‘S4′ smartphone revealed this spring.
The announcement also featured an appearance from Microsoft ‘chief technical strategy officer’ Eric Rudder, who showed a prototype product operating Windows Phone 8 with Youm, under a demonstration that proved the screen to operate normally in spite of being flexed. Samsung Display executive Brian Berkeley stated of the product: “It won’t break even if it’s dropped. This new form-factor will really begin to change how people interact with their devices, opening up new lifestyle possibilities … allow our partners to create a whole new ecosystem of devices.”
Similar products to be revealed in the past week fall into both the ‘flexible’ and the ‘phone’ categories individually, with the unveilings of the strange ‘PaperTab’ tablet computer (a monochrome product that seems to use an excessive amount of laminated paper-thin ‘tablet apps’ that can only be used with an electro-magnetic table, according to the video introduction below), and the ‘SpareOne Plus’, an ‘emergency phone’ that runs for 15 years on standby on one AA-battery (and 10 hours of ‘calling’ (emergency numbers available via in-built GPS and no sim-card)).
An item that is basically a smartphone that stretches probably can claim to be as unnecessary as the PaperTab, but while it may not have the long-lasting appeal of the SpareOne Plus, it is obvious which product of the three has the most consumer appeal and will win on the shelves…
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