Over the last year Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display have been pounding out design and utility patents regarding future bendable and foldable smartphone designs as they seek to find a new niche of smartphone that will give them a market edge over Apple and Chinese OEM such as Huawei and Oppo. Surprisingly this month two Apple patents for foldable smartphones have come to light as well to illustrate that this on the minds of many smartphone vendors around the globe.

Yesterday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Samsung a design patent for a slick foldable smartphone that exposes one end of the display so that it could act as a menu or app dock or an area for notifications. Samsung was also granted a utility patent yesterday for a flexible display structure that will support future foldable smartphones like the one they were just granted.

Below is just a single patent graphic to give you an overall idea of the new foldable smartphone design. When opened, the display will provide users with a massive display for watching movies or to multitask by having multiple apps open at one time.

To view more of Samsung's granted design patent graphics regarding possible future foldable smartphones, click here. Samsung has another design on this foldable smartphone concept worth checking out that's very similar except it offers a design that uses a distinct hinge system that supports the folding of the smartphone.

For those who enjoy following industry trends and new ideas in general, you could also check out Samsung's flexible display patent that was granted to them yesterday covering one of their display support systems that allows a display to bend without damaging it. You could check it out here.