Market research firm DisplaySearch predicts a strong future for flexible smartphones and says it will constitute 40 percent of the global smartphone market in 2018.
Flexible smartphones are just coming out of their shell but the future looks promising. According to the latest research by market analytics firm DisplaySearch, flexible smartphones will witness a continuous year-over-year growth. Curved screens in smartphones accounted for just 0.2 percent in 2013 but are expected to jump up to 12 percent by 2015 and 40 percent by 2018.
So far, only Samsung and LG have dived into the curved smartphone market with Galaxy Round and LG G-Flex, respectively. Both smartphones were launched in October last year, but the Korean tech giants haven't expanded their lineup since. Samsung Display predicted the future of smartphones to be closely tied to flexible screens after 2014, according to its market analysis report last year.
Samsung also predicted that wearables will evolve from bent panels to foldable panels to stretchable panels, ITProPortal reports. The demand for wearables is expected to go up by 22 percent by 2018, reaching up to 500 million units, according to Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) research.
Flexible screens have not only attracted smartphones and wearables but are popular in televisions too. LG's first 55-inch curved screen OLED HDTV went on sale in July 2013, with a hefty price tag of $15,000, seven months after it was originally shown at the 2013 CES. Samsung quickly joined the race by launching its own 55-inch curved OLED TV for a reduced price of $9,000 in August last year.
Earlier this year, LG announced the world's first 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV, putting it ahead of its competition with Samsung. Last week, the Korean tech giant also mastered the art of flexibility and transparency in an OLED panel. The company launched its 18-inch flexible OLED panel that can be rolled like a paper, which LG claims is a step in the direction of bringing 60 or more inches foldable television by 2017.
The promising growth of wearables is attracting more tech titans to join the arena. More competition will translate in to affordable prices, which will in turn attract more buyers toward the new tech.
