LG says they’ll have a flexible OLED equipped smartphone on store shelves by the end of 2013

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 25 Apr 2013

The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of LG’s Q1 2013 financial results includes a snippet of text that should make Samsung’s heart beat a little bit faster today. Here’s the quote:

“Yoon Bu-hyun, vice president at LG’s mobile business, said the company will cooperate with affiliate LG Display Co. to introduce a smartphone with a flexible OLED screen in the fourth quarter.”

Yes, you read that right, a phone with a flexible screen. Now just to make things clear, there’s a high probability that you’re not going to be able to bend the display yourself. Instead, the device will have a screen that’s not perfectly flat. It might even wrap around the phone.

Should you believe LG? I wouldn’t. They announced the world’s first dual core smartphone, but started shipping it after their competitors introduced their respective dual core handsets. It was the same story when quad core processors became a thing.

What makes me really excited is that Samsung and LG typically do things in lock step. If one company announces some crazy new technology in the morning, the other will publish a press release in the afternoon that discusses the same technology.

So that’s got me thinking, remember the rumor yesterday about the Note III having a plastic display? Maybe it’s actually true. Either way, all this stuff is at least half a year from being launched, so sit back and enjoy the wait.