Following on in the mould of their South Korean rivals Samsung, technology giants LG have announced their intention to also develop the proposed innovation of bendability in portable devices, although in a game of one-upsmanship the latter will seek to ensure that everything on a product is flexible.
This goal is mainly being targeted through the development of one crucial and formerly non-bendable component of a device – the battery, with LG believed to currently be mass producing ‘curved batteries’ (pictured) that could have applications in ‘a variety of products’.
Designed primarily for compatibility with smartphones, smartwatches and headsets, the power source could even be implemented by Samsung should they not choose to announce their own, although that day could still be some distance off with both South Korean companies merely at various ‘work in progress’ stages in their product development cycles.
LG are also noted as planning to develop the even more-flexible ‘cable batteries’, although while proven a successful method of power by the company they have been the first to admit that it will not be ready for the consumer market for ‘some years’.
For the complete package, though, a flexible-screen smartphone (with a curved OLED screen ’from top to bottom’ that is ‘bendable and unbreakable’) is being hinted at a release in 2014, as a statement from LG on the planned product read: “The new display is vertically concave from top to bottom with a radius of 700mm [28in], opening up a world of design innovations in the smartphone market. What’s more, it is also the world’s lightest, weighing a mere 7.2g even with a six-inch screen, the largest among current smartphone OLED displays.”
With the developments against Samsung’s slower development of the ‘Samsung Youm’ since being publicly demonstrated at the start of this year meaning that LG could yet be the strongest opener in the flexible smartphone market, could the effort being put into the technology mean it is a functional future of the products rather than a novelty factor?