The recent launches of the Samsung Note Edge, Samsung...

The recent launches of the Samsung Note Edge, Samsung Galaxy Round and LG G Flex “took the hype” surrounding flexible smartphone displays “one step closer to reality,” Strategy Analytics said Friday. But despite being made from flexible OLED materials, those first-generation phones “offer limited new functionality and in fact have curved rigid screens, rather than flexible screens,” it said. “Curved OLED screens offer a number of benefits over rigid LCD screens, including being lighter, thinner and supposedly more durable. In addition, the curved form factor of the screens may offer a more comfortable user experience.” In terms of their impact on display technology for smartphones, “they are a huge leap forward” and are likely the “precursors” to “truly flexible” smartphone displays in the future, when leveraging OLED’s flexibility “will enable a host of completely new designs and form factors to be developed, such as smartphones with tablet-sized foldable screens,” it said. Challenges abound in making “truly flexible and foldable” devices commercially available, it said. “More of the phone’s components need to be flexible to make a truly flexible phone, not just the display. This includes the cover material, the batteries as well as the semiconductors and other components. In addition, new tools and processes will need to be developed for cost-effective volume production.” Strategy Analytics estimated it will take three years for those challenges to be overcome. Once conquered, “it is likely that flexible OLED displays will become the preferred display technology in mass consumer products within the next 10 years,” it said.