We have talked about rollable displays before, but they were always ‘five years away from commercial exploitation,’ but now Telecom Italia Mobile says it will have one out this year.
The deal is between Telecom Italia and Polymer Vision, and is to see the pioneers of the rollable display develop and launch the world’s first mobile device with the technology in during 2007. The idea is to create a reading format more like a book or newspaper than a mobile screen.
Philips told us it was working on this technology during 2004 and Polymer Vision was spun out of Philips Electronics last year to exploit it.
The idea is that a frame holds the rollable display and as it is pulled out of the handset, it unrolls, and can present a 5 inch wide screen. At present they are monochrome plus four shades of gray, but Polymer Vision intends to extend the technology to color, and add touchscreen function, and is working on low cost manufacture.