We have heard rumors that come 2017, Samsung could be unveiling a smartphone with a foldable display. We know that Samsung has been working on the technology, and 2017 could be when it will finally be available commercially. We then heard another report suggesting that LG could be following suit.Given their fierce rivalry, this did not really come as a surprise, and it looks like LG has pretty much confirmed it. LG Display has announced that the company plans on investing a whopping $1.75 billion towards flexible OLED screens. Of course what those screens will be used for remains to be seen, but like we said, given the earlier rumors it almost sounds as if LG is teasing that they do have plans for a foldable smartphone as well.
According to Dr. Sang-Beom Han, CEO and Vice Chairman of LG Display, “A paradigm shift to OLED represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the display industry. LG Display is determined to become the leader in the fast-growing OLED market through timely investments to maximize efficiency.”
That being said, LG Display also supplies display to other customers, such as Apple as we have seen in the past, so it is possible that this investment could be for boosting its production line to meet the demands from their customers, but either way we guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime the closest thing we’ve gotten from LG as far as flexible displays are concerned is the LG G Flex series of smartphones.
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