Corning set to solve the biggest problem with folding smartphones

The age of folding phones is nearly here, but the biggest issue with buyers investing in the products is not the price, but the longevity of the device, due to the screens being made out of plastic, and the most attractive designs exposing those very screens to the rough and tumble of your pocket.

Corning, the company famous in smartphone circles for its Gorilla Glass, is, however, working on a solution for the problem.

According to John Bayne, the head of Corning’s Gorilla Glass division, the company is working on super-thin glass which can be bent to a 5mm radius several hundreds of thousands of times.

Their glass is however not quite reaching OEM demands yet.

“We have glasses we’ve sampled to customers, and they’re functional, but they’re not quite meeting all the requirements,” Bayne says. “People either want better performance against a drop event or a tighter bend radius. We can give them one or the other; the key is to give them both.”

Corning expects to have a usable product in a few years time, and are competing against other companies also racing to provide a solution.

Till then you should either keep your folding phone in a velvet carry case, or possibly skip this generation.

Via Wired.com