Flexible Smartphones Could Capture Nearly 20% of Market by 2019

As the tech world is still wrapping its collective mind around the concept of blendable and foldable smart devices, predictions are being made about their potential market influence. Kang Chung-seok, the leader of the colorless polyimide division at Kolon Industries, anticipates that these innovative gadgets could take over nearly 20% of the smartphone market before the close of 2019. His insights, delivered in an interview with the Korea Herald, are particularly significant due to his company’s unique capacity to mass-produce the bendy tech crucial for creating these flexible devices.

Kolon Industries already supplies these particular materials to major manufacturers. Its notable clientele includes Samsung, which is rumored to roll out its inaugural flexible smartphone early next year—just months after Kolon started mass producing colorless polyimide in August. “Around three to five tech companies are expected to mass produce foldable phones in 2018 globally, allowing these devices to occupy around 20 percent of the total smartphone market,” Chung-seok predicted optimistically.

Chung-seok also offered compelling insights into the development process of these foldable phones. Despite his enthusiasm for next year as the supposed dawn of the bendable smartphone, he pragmatically acknowledged that the devices may not initially feature the ideal bend radius needed for the phones to fold in half completely. He explains, “The bend radius of 1 millimeter is the most ideal, but that may cause a safety issue. Therefore, tech companies are expected to release devices with a bend radius of 5 millimeters first, and then incrementally develop models boasting a smaller bend radius.”

While industry titans Samsung and LG have publicized their bendable phone plans, Apple remains tight-lipped despite speculations fueled by leaked patent designs implying the company’s interest in developing a flexible iPhone.

It remains to be seen how this intriguing blend of form and function will fare in the ever-evolving smartphone market. But if Kang Chung-seok’s predictions hold, bendable devices are about to change the landscape of personal tech in a big way.