“ROLL-UP” FLAT-SCREEN TV from LG Teased for CONSUMERS by 2019

In this age of ever advancing technologies, one direction that manufacturers are taking mobile gadgets and appliances is the “big size but easy storage” question. That pertains to having devices with screens like smartphones and TVs being as large as can be, only to be stored in some unorthodox fashion. It can either be a smartphone that can “unfold” into a tablet with a bigger screen (and fold back into a phone) or a flat, flat-screen TV that can be – of all things – rolled up. Such a device is one of Korean electronics manufacturer LG’s bleeding-edge projects, revealed way back in January and being made available for consumers next year.

Bloomberg reports that LG Electronics is gearing up to mass-manufacture the nifty roll-up flat-screen TV they have been developing for general consumers in 2019. Their most recent preview of the unusual device in its latest development stage was during the Consumer Electronics Showcase 2018 from the beginning of this soon-to-end year. Where an earlier prototype of the roll-up TV was merely rolled up by hand, the CES display units featured a base for the ultrathin flat-screens which house the automatic roll-up spool to store the screen when not in use.

As mentioned by an anonymous source within LG, the proposed roll-up TVs have 65-inch flexible screens, made with OLED rather than LCD due to having materials that are easily to roll or fold, not to mention generate superior crisp images. A button press on the TV base will have the screens roll out and switch on, the same for turning off, like an automated projector screen but with the image coming from the screen itself. Analysts project that the new LG roll-up TVs may help increase the proliferation of OLED screens, when about 98% of available flat-screens still use LCD.

LG is determined to drum up interest in their new appliance to aid in revitalizing the South Korean electronics industry, which is also beginning to be seriously challenged by the rise of competing and more price-friendly alternatives from China. Once the roll-up TV becomes available for consumers next year, observers posit an optimistic increase in OLED-screen TVs by up to 70%, going from this 2017’s 2.35 million units to a potential 4 million in 2019. Furthermore, LG is also hoping to have a new smartphone of the 5th generation (5G) ready for unveiling on the first half of next year.

Image courtesy of The Verge