Samsung mobile division plans to build its own foldable glass
Samsung is a major conglomerate that has many sister companies and subsidiaries. One of them is Samsung Electronics, the department that develops the Galaxy mobile lineup, and another is Samsung Display – the arm that manufactures screens for smartphones, as well as TVs, monitors, and many more.
According to one report from South Korea, Samsung Electronics is planning to develop its own foldable panel, without the help of Samsung Display, in order to lower the cost of the screen and make the technology more affordable in the future.
ETNews reported that the mobile division at Samsung Electronics contacted “multiple foldable glass manufacturing companies”. That way the company can increase the competition between providers and lower the price while the technology improves over time. Currently, a smartphone like the Galaxy Z Flip has an extremely thin glass panel that is bending, instead of breaking, simply due to its thinness.
However, Samsung Electronics believes that with its current supply network, read Samsung Display, it can’t get a thicker panel that will have fewer wrinkles and creases when the panel is folding. Price-wise, the foldable glass of the Galaxy Z Flip is currently around $40, while a regular tempered glass in regular smartphones is $2.
The goal of this in-house competition is for Samsung Electronics to lower the price and the workload of the display division’s shoulders, while keeping the high quality and performance of the internalized technology, just like it does with the camera module or the metal casing of the phone.
Our editor Ricky recently went through the painstaking process of replacing the protective glass in front of the camera. We can only imagine how much more expensive this repair would’ve cost if the phone had cracked on the inside.
