Samsung has quietly given a name to its flexible AMOLED technology in a sign it’s getting closer to a real launch. Now called Youm, it makes the thin film transistor and the encapsulation entirely out of film instead of glass. The changes not only let it bend and fold freely but, according to Samsung, make it “unbreakable,” thinner, and lighter.
The company has fully committed to the name and has trademarks with the USPTO. They cover multiple different forms of AMOLED screens to keep the Youm name active in the long term.
Samsung starts bulk production of flexible displays sometime during the spring and, if on track, could be in a shipping product before the end of 2012. Among the candidates could be things as simple as curved-screen smartphones and wristwatches to folding phones and portable devices whose displays unfold.