Samsung to release first flexible gadgets in the first half of 2013

There have been so many different ETAs mentioned in reports based on “sources” and “insiders” for Samsung’s launch of the first gadgets with flexible displays that we’ve started to think the entire thing will never happen.

Although we know that the technology is there and we’ve seen a bunch of prototypes, Sammy is still experiencing some technical difficulties that have pushed back the first releases for the first half of next year, at the earliest.

Fortunately, if we are to trust the latest report from the Wall Street Journal, everything seems to be finally falling in place for Samsung’s flexible displays lately, so this latest “deadline” might actually be met.

According to “a person familiar with the situation”, Samsung Display Co. is in the last phase of development of flexible displays for mobile devices, which should allow us to welcome the first bendable phones by mid-2013.

Now don’t get ahead of yourselves just yet, because, even if everything will go according to plan, it’s hard to believe Samsung will risk debuting the technology on one of its flagships. That means the chances to see an elastic Galaxy S4 are very slim, especially after the S3 managed to shook up Apple’s universe.

Another reason to tone down the excitement is that the “so-called” flexible displays that are expected to enter production soon will most likely not be fully flexible. Instead, they’ll be protected by a very thin layer of inflexible glass, as we reported a while back, just to ensure no reliability issues will pop up unexpectedly.

But if that’ll be the case, should we really be excited about the introduction of the new display technology in the least bit? Of course we should, and not just because a bendable smartphone would look cool or because we’ve seen Flubber. But because flexible gadgets would have their panels made out of plastic and “the key reason for Samsung to use plastic rather than conventional glass is to produce displays that aren’t breakable”, as Lee Seung-Chul, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities, told WSJ.

And that, boys and gals, along with the unbelievably slim profiles of Youm screens and the lower manufacturing costs that could lead to lower selling prices, are the true reasons why Samsung is going to such great lengths to get everything ready ASAP.

Who’s ready to welcome flexible phones even if they won’t be flexible in the true sense of the word?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7orrDq6ainJGqwam70aKrsmaTpLpwv8Cmqq6ml2KzrbHXopmlnV2crqWzxK2qZmpgZoBuvsSlnJqrlWJ%2BdH2Vbm1o