I recently wrote a piece in Insider entitled “A Glimpse at Future Displays” in which I shared some new technologies I saw at the SID Display Conference in May in Los Angeles.
In this piece, I highlighted new displays in the works from Visonox, BOE, and E-Ink and shared how these types of foldable and flexible screens could reinvent smartphones and allow for various kinds of new mobile and pocketable form factors.
These are exciting developments, and since I got to touch and play with the BOE design examples, it is easy to see how these types of screens could shake up the smartphone market with new innovative designs. It could also cause a massive move by billions of today’s smartphone users to move to devices that have these types of new foldable and flexible displays in the next decade. In fact, this could be the mother of all smartphone refreshes, especially at the mid to premium level of these hand-held phones.
The first evolution of the smartphone will have foldable screens and could start hitting the market either later this year or early 2019. Many smartphone and PC vendors are expected to bring to market form factors that have dual screens set side by side that will have a seam in the middle, optimized for multi-tasking. Some will have two, 4-inch screens that, when opened up, will have a display that diagonally should be around 8.2 inches. Others will be more like tablets with dual screens using 8-inch screens on each side so when opened up it delivers a little over 16 inches in screen real estate.
The value proposition of dual screen foldable mobile devices is that when folded it is a small package, but when unfolded you get two screens and a much larger display to read and work with. While I can see some value in this, the more significant issue is how it will work in the multi-tasking mode and whether one screen’s content can be extended to the other screen for some form of continuous workflow. Watching a video on these dual screens with a seam in the middle would not be a great experience. On the other hand, the vendors behind this design argue that the multi-tasking features, along with a larger display, will drive demand.
The second wave of smartphone innovation will come when flexible displays can be mass produced and made available for use in new smartphones and tablets. As of now, the flexible display makers think that they could get to mass production by 2021-2022 at the earliest, but admit there are a lot of challenges ahead to get these types of screens to the market. Even if they can make them in quantity, the design of any new smartphone that uses these flexible displays has to be looked at holistically and that may include new types of manufacturing processes, electronics, as well as new kinds of materials and components to make smartphones and tablets that can take advantage of flexible displays in new mobile designs.
I suspect that creating a mobile device that uses flexible displays will be much more complicated than today given all of the new design criteria needed to make one that is durable and works as well as today’s straightforward flat screen displays.
The other issue that will be critical for the success of these next-generation mobile devices is that consumers will want and expect foldable or flexible smartphones or tablets to deliver on all the benefits they’ve come to expect with flagship devices. That includes superior optics, durability, scratch-resistant screen covers, AR and VR capabilities and lightweight with long battery life. I don’t believe they will accept any trade-offs and will expect even more significant features and functionality if they are to adopt these new designs in the future.
The foldable and flexible displays I saw at SID used plastic screen covers, and as you know, plastic is highly prone to scratches and cracking and not high at optical clarity. One knows from history that glass covers are superior to plastic and a glass solution like Corning makes today that can be used, especially on flexible displays, will also be needed to deliver the kind of rugged, quality experience consumers will expect in any next generation of mobile devices. Putting glass covers on foldable designs is pretty easy but more challenging for flexible displays.
Most people are comfortable with their 5 and 6-inch screens on their smartphones today, so it will be interesting to see how interested they will be with new smartphones and tablets that have foldable and eventually, flexible displays. I do not doubt that a mobile device with much larger screens, when opened up, will appeal to many, but whether it hits the sweet spot of the mass market is a big question. Cost of these new form factors will also be an issue. At first, they will be priced in the premium range but will eventually get down at price so that a broader audience could buy them.
Either way, these foldable and flexible displays give smartphone vendors and tablet makers a new palette of technology to work with, and I expect to see many innovative designs that integrate foldable and flexible screens into their mobile device offerings in the future.
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