Since an electronic paper display (EPD), which is bendable, light, and unbreakable, first proved the potential of a flexible display, it has been mass produced successfully in the 2000s, albeit in a small volume. However, during the past 10 years, display developers had to run into the reality of how hard it is to develop such a new display technology and find the market needs.

Afterwards, with the emergence of smartphones, demand for displays with full color gamut, high resolution, and fast response time has grown, diminishing the popularity of the EPD somewhat. Instead, interest in flexible display technologies has risen immensely.

Since then, various display makers sought out to develop flexible displays using liquid crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, and such efforts paid off, resulting in the launches of the Galaxy Note Edge by Samsung Electronics Co. and the G Flex by LG Electronics Inc., as well as the Apple Watch by Apple Inc. slated to be rolled out soon.

These products have been well received in the market so far, appealing not only to display industry participants but also to general consumers. They also suggest great strides made in the development of flexible displays.

The OLED is a self-light-emitting display that can reproduce full color gamut without a stacked structure, which is required in a LCD panel. Therefore, even if its form is changed, the picture quality remains almost unchanged, making OLED the most suitable for a flexible display. In fact, the devices with a flexible display employ mostly OLED, while the e-paper is used only in wearables coming with a small-size screen or as complementary screens.

How fast the market will grow will be determined by the development of technologies dealing with the components of a flexible display and diversification of applications that require flexible displays.

When looking at substrate, electrode, and thin film transistor (TFT) technologies, as well as production methods, the flexible display technology is at a turning point. However, such room for further development in technology is not necessarily bad for the display industry that needs a new growth engine. It could not be possible to accomplish current display technology achievements without great efforts to make difference. Now, the time has arrived to pay more attention to flexible display technology that the industry should focus on in the end.