Maybe you'll get a folding iPhone or Google Pixel in 2018
LG Electronics will supply Apple, Google and Microsoft with folding phone displays the year after next, Electronics Times reports.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
A couple years from now, maybe you'll get a phone that doesn't look pretty much exactly like the last three you got, because phones from Apple, Google and Microsoft could get folding displays in 2018, according to a new report.
Display maker LG Electronics will supply the folding displays once they start mass production in 2018, according to a Friday report on Korean news site Electronic Times.
Foldable phones hold the potential to dramatically increase screen size when you pull them out of your pocket, a feature that would be useful for enlarging text, seeing more of your inbox, giving developers more room for app features and making video more engaging. But foldable displays pose many engineering challenges, including cost, durability and hassles to get them to work.
When folded, the phone resembles a Microsoft Surface Book. Note the small gap.
Bendable or foldable phones offer manufacturers a way to make products stand out in a market that's already crowded with similar looking slabs of glass.
LG already has showed off prototype folding screens and flexible screens that can be rolled up.
Google declined to comment on the report. LG, Apple and Microsoft didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.