At yesterday’s Lenovo Global Tech World event, Motorola introduced a new smartphone concept that uses a flexible pOLED display as presented in the short video clip below.

The phone provides a 6.9” display with the flexible fabric backside. The device can snap onto a metal cuff to stay secured on your wrist presumably via magnets. The UI appears to shape itself based on how the screen is aligned. Considering that this is a concept phone, there was no news of it coming to market.

For interest sake, it should be known that Apple has been working on a similar concept since 2018. We posted a continuation patent report regarding this invention back in January 2023.

Apple's patent FIGS. 12A-12B below from that patent are schematic isometric view illustrations of an electronic device #1200 such as an iPhone. The display panel #150 and protective cover layer #100 may be curved, flexible, conformable and/or foldable. Apple's patent FIG. 12A illustrates an outward bending application, while FIG. 12B illustrates an inward bending application.

(Click on image to Enlarge)

While foldable and/or scrollable display centric iPhones may be more of a priority, a flexible iPhone design as noted in the patent figures above are at least on record with Apple.

Apple also has a secondary concept of a flexible display that wraps around a user’s wrist found in a 2016 patent report, with patent figures presented below.

Apple’s patent notes that the “Flexible display (#302) is overlaid on the surface of the accessory device with a thin border area #304 securing and protecting the edges of flexible the display. Flexible electronic module #306 is also shown located on one end of accessory device #300. In FIG. 3B the accessory device is in a curled state and can be seen wrapped around the wrist of a user. The accessory device is wrapped around a wrist in a way such that the flexible electronic module #306 is completely obscured by the wrap around flexible display, leaving only a thin border to interrupt an otherwise continuous screen around the wrist.