Samsung Display has been showing design concepts of foldable phones and other devices for some years. Most of them had ‘fold in’ displays where the display surfaces are folded to face each other. However, making inward folding displays is harder than making out-folding devices because the radius needs to be tighter so Samsung was believed to be developing that kind of device.
Now, the ET Times is now reporting that Samsung has switched back to working on an in-folding smartphone concept and the report suggests that the project is getting beyond the R&D phase and is moving to commercialisation with a planned date for release in 2018. Samsung President Ko Dong-jin is quoted as saying at the recent Note 8 launch that it still had a couple of problems to solve, but expected to get products out next year. The paper said that it asked Ko why Samsung changed direction, but did not get a response.
Samsung showed this concept in 2013. It has been frustrating that when Samsung showed prototypes, even when it let us write about the technology, it wouldn’t let us take pictures!
