A couple of months back, we gave you the news of Huawei patenting its own designs for its upcoming foldable phone. Now, it looks that the idea is moving forward yet another step.
According to Korean website ET News, the company already has a partner for developing the special displays needed for the foldable phone, the China-based BOE.
BOE may not be a household name elsewhere, but it is the largest display maker in China, being the world’s largest LCD producer while also developing enhancements in OLED.
With the company, Huawei is aiming to introduce a device which measures 8-inch diagonally as early as November, beating Samsung (its main competitor in the segment) to launching the device in the market. Huawei had previously struck a partnership with LG for the display, however, that seems to have ended for now.
In recent times, BOE has showcased 6″, 7.6″ and WQHD AMOLED bendable panels. The panel reportedly had a thickness of 1mm and could be bent around 100,000 times. BOE may already have the capability to mass produce these panels, for all we know.
BOE itself is said to be working on foldable phones with two different companies. However, what that second company is is anyone’s guess. Xiaomi, Oppo, LG, Lenovo and ZTE and Samsung have all shown varying degrees of interest in the market. Samsung’s own Samsung Display division means it’ll probably hesitate to look for avenues outside of its own umbrella.
With foldable phones apparently going to be all the craze in the future smartphone market, getting the first-mover advantage is something that Huawei doesn’t want to miss.
