After foldables, it looks the smartphone industry is slowly moving towards foldable panels. TCL set the ball rolling with its rollable phone tablet hybrid last year (though it never made it into the hands of consumers) and showcased yet another concept at CES 2021. LG has also promised to launch its own Project Explorer device will a sliding display, and Oppo has also showcased its own version as well. It now appears that Samsung is next to jump the bandwagon, as a senior Samsung Display executive has confirmed that the South Korean electronics giant is working on slideable and rollable panels.

“We’ll promote our market expansion for foldable displays. In the meantime, we’ll also fortify our presence in the display market to innovative form factors such as rollable and slideable displays,” KwonYoung Choi, Senior VP of Samsung Display, said during the company’s recent earnings call. “The Company will further solidify its leadership in the OLED market and diversify applications across note PCs, tablets, and automotive,” the company wrote in its Q4 2020 earnings call announcement.

Now, it is worth noting here that the Samsung executive did not mention whether these rollable and slideable display panels will be used for smartphones or a large screen product such as TVs. But considering the fact that rollable phones from various brands are already in the pipeline and the vision is very much feasible to achieve as a mass-market device, Samsung would definitely not want to be left behind.

Plus, TVs with a rollable display have a much lesser mass-market appeal and come with an outrageous price tag. Just take the example of LG’s roll-up TV that costs somewhere around $60,000. Samsung is already the market leader when it comes to foldable phones, and right now, rollable and slideable phones look like the perfect opportunity for Samsung to flex its hardware innovation muscle and take an early lead in a nascent segment.

Source Android Authority