LG, Samsung likely to launch curved-screen smartphones in Q4

LG Electronics and Samsung both appear to be gearing up to launch smartphones with curved-screen displays in the fourth quarter in preparation for the holiday smartphone buying season.

Yesterday, LG announced that it is starting mass production of smartphones with curved screens and an executive indicated the company would launch a smartphone with a curved display in November.

LG's decision to move ahead with curved-display smartphones could be due to Samsung. Last month Samsung executives said at an event in Seoul, Korea, that the company would launch a curved display smartphone in October, but declined to provide further details.

Samsung executives have been talking about curved displays for several months. At the Consumer Electronics show in January, Samsung's Stephen Woo, president of the company's components business, showed off a prototype smartphone with a flexible display.

At that time, Samsung said it would sell flexible OLED displays under the Youm brand.  Besides making components for its own smartphones, the company also sells a wide range of electronics components to other manufacturers, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Curved displays are already available in other consumer electronics devices, such as large-screen TVs. Samsung and LG Electronics both started selling curved OLED TV sets this year for around $9,000.

For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this release

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