The South Korean Government commissioned LG to develop 'stretchable' screens as the flexible display market shows huge potential across smartphones, smart displays, car dashboards, wearables, and even OLED TV.
According to a press release, "the company is aiming to develop stretchable display products with a 20% elongation rate by 2024."
Once available, consumers may soon have a smartphone that can bear an even larger display as it stretches to increase its length. This means a 6-inch screen can stretch to a 7.2-inch display or so, according to The ELec.
What does a flexible display bring? Biggest electronics companies rush to produce multiple foldable smartphones like Samsung Galaxy Fold while LG Display develops rollable OLED TV that can expand to various heights while using.
According to LG, "stretchable displays are considered to be the ideal next-generation technology," which can shift in 'free form' as a rubber band stretches without affecting the quality of displays such as screen distortion.
"By comparison, existing commercial flexible display technologies such as bendable, foldable, and rollable panels excel only in particular areas or directions," said the company adding the stretchable displays are considered as the flexible displays' final progress.
The ground-breaking LG Stretch Phone
The biggest prospective market for the technology would lie in smartphones, which grapples with the form factor. This would allow zooming in on a picture without reducing the amount of information onscreen. The device can also fit easily in the pocket and expand when needed.
There may well be applications for augmented reality, with the ability to physically influence AR-compatible devices to change what information is being shown.
Last year, The Sun reported about the patented gained by LG for its stretchable screen technology.
The artist-illustrated designs for the patented device look like any other smartphone, except when the phone is flipped over.
Unlike most current mobile phones that have a single slate of glass or aluminum as back support, the proposed device can be separated into several parts.
The stretchable screen enables the user to pull on the casing, which would extend the smartphone screen from all angles: upwards, downwards, and on either side of the screen. After using the larger screen, the user can slide the phone back to its original size.
To make this technology possible, LG would need some new features and software such as a user interface that automatically adjusts to the size of the screen.
The market is now flooded with foldable smartphones that can fold into a tablet and have a 5G option. Samsung's foldable offers six cameras and is priced at $1,980, while Huawei has a screen that can be used in three ways and costs around $2,600.
After the failed initial launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, LG may be confident for its 2024 expected release for a new stretchable screen. After all, the company surprised the world with its rollable Signature Series of OLED TV. It is something to look forward to.
