Samsung Galaxy Round heralds foldable screens by 2016

Samsung plans foldable screens in the next three years, the Samsung Galaxy Round just the first in a new generation of flexing phones.

Presenting a roadmap of future plans to industry experts, Samsung revealed that 'curved' screens, like the one on the front of the Round, will give way to 'bended' screens next year. Then 'foldable' displays will come along in 2016 and through 2017. 

But Samsung identifies "technical challenges" before screens can begin to fold. And even if the screens themselves can fold, that doesn't necessarily mean we'll have folding phones any time soon -- not until folding batteries, processors and other phone gubbins are perfected too.  

The Round, flexing its muscles in South Korea, has a concave screen. Although it is on sale to the public, it's reported to be a proof-of-concept and won't necessarily be made widely available in its present form. A spokesperson told me today that "Samsung currently has no plans to bring the Galaxy Round to the UK market."

At an event for analysts reported by SammyHub, Samsung also revealed that sales of the S line of smart phones and Note line of phablets will have collectively sold 100 million by the end of this year. That's a lotta Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and S4 phones, not to mention a whole heap of Note, Note 2 and Note 3 phablets.

It's sales like that that see Samsung raking in record results, earning £6bn profit this summer.

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