Apple, scrollable displays and iPod shades

Posted by Dennis Sellers Mar 23, 2006 at 11:20am

With advances in technology always in motion, you have to wonder if Apple would ever consider introducing a flexible or scrollable display for, or in relation to, a future iteration of the their iPod or any other Apple device in the pipeline for that matter. This general-interest report takes a first look at the advances that have been made in scrollable displays.

The first graphic presented in this report is an NEC concept design of a flexible display designed for a cell phone. This will come into play a little further on into this report.

Scrollable displays

There have been some interesting developments on the scrollable display front in ‘Techland’ recently that look very promising. The funny thing is – Steve Jobs actually brought this into play during Wall Street Journal’s third annual D Conference last May. Journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher asked Apple’s CEO about his company’s plans for its most popular product – the iPod, as follows:

Swisher: It’s the same issue you’re talking about with video?

Jobs: Yes, you want a nice big screen so that you can see lots of music and you can pick out what you want, versus a tiny little screen. But then again, you want the screen to be small so that you can put it in your pocket. Actually, discovering and buying music on a computer and downloading it to the iPod—in our opinion, that’s one of the geniuses of the iPod. So you can look at changing that—and maybe that will happen over time—but I think the experience you’ll get on a device optimized for putting in your pocket is going to be far less satisfactory than on a personal computer. You may still want to do that [on a small screen] occasionally, but I don’t think it’s ever going to mean that you can not have some other device that is your primary device for buying and cataloguing music.

Swisher: What would solve that? Can it be solved?

Jobs: Rollable screens, goggles you can put on; I don’t know. It’s not on the horizon.

Yet in context, Jobs commenting that “it’s not on the horizon” can’t always be taken too seriously considering that this was the famous interviewwhere Steve Jobs downplayed an iPod with video capabilities. You know what happened five months later— so denials don’t necessarily mean a thing.

Furthermore, I go back to the fact that it was Jobs who introduced the notion of “scrollable and/or goggles” as a possible answer to the iPod’s smaller screen deficiencies for video and so forth and not the interviewer taking a wild guess.

At the time I didn’t pay much attention to this aspect of the Mossberg interview until I read a report about the Universal Display Corporation’s (UDC) latest scrollable display this past January. After seeing their new display illustration and reading up on their marketing sales pitch that included verbiage referring to a “metal screen from a pen-like device,” it dawned on me. Wait a minute; didn’t Apple just introduce their iPod nano comparing its thinness to a pencil? Yes, of course. Yet, could Apple actually use this technology?

A four-inch flexible display

An interesting NE Asia report recently stated that the Universal Display Corp had announced the achievement of a full-color, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display prototype on flexible metal foil at the US Display Consortium’s 5th Annual Flexible Displays & Microelectronics Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

The report went on to state that “Based on the company’s proprietary phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED), top-emitting OLED (TOLED) and flexible OLED (FOLED) technologies, the full-color AMOLED prototype also uses poly-silicon thin film transistor (TFT) backplanes designed and fabricated by PARC, a subsidiary of Xerox Corp, and was encapsulated by Vitex Systems.

The four-inch diagonal display can portray a variety of images, including full-motion video. This advance is significant in proving the fundamental feasibility of the company’s approach. The display (without external drive electronics and package) is approximately 0.1mm thick and weighs a mere 6g. The comparable glass-based LCD would be approximately 1.0 -1.5mm thick and weigh 20-30g. Research and development activities are continuing in a number of areas including enhanced display flexibility, defect elimination and enhanced electronics capabilities.

This flexible, full-color AMOLED prototype highlights several key advantages of the company’s proprietary OLED technologies over conventional liquid crystal displays (LCD). Flexible OLED displays are thinner and lighter weight than existing LCDs. The use of metal foil, instead of the glass that is typically used in LCDs, also offers enhanced thermal and mechanical durability. These features may offer important advantages for today’s cell phones, PDA’s and lap-top computers.

Coupling these features with the metal foil’s inherent flexibility may also lead to a variety of new product opportunities. Applications might include wearable electronics, such as a wrist-mounted PDA, and other portable electronics. These advances are critical for eventual development of the company’s proprietary universal communication device, which would allow a user to unroll a thin, metal screen from a pen-like device for visual as well as verbal communication. ”
Other product concepts

Universal Display Corporation’s web site also provides additional application concepts for their new displays as follows:

Traveling the increasingly exciting commercialization roadmap for OLEDs, OLED technology will find ever-greater application in a wide variety of existing display applications. Leveraging the novel features of our TOLED and FOLED technologies, OLEDs may also engender entirely new display products. Universal Display Corporation has only begun to imagine what OLED technology can create in the way of products for our world. Here are a few ideas about what the future may bring:

° Wrist-mounted, featherweight, rugged PDAs

° Wearable, form-fitting, electronic displays

° Conformed, high-contrast automotive instrument and windshield displays

° Heads-up instrumentation for aircraft and automobiles

° Roll-up, electronic, daily-refreshable newspapers

° Ultra-lightweight, wall-size television monitors

° Office windows, walls and partitions that double as computer screens

° Color-changing lighting panels and light walls for home and office

° Computer-controlled, electronic shelf pricing for supermarkets and retail stores

° Smart goggles/helmets for scuba divers and motorcycle riders

Hmm, that’s interesting to see smart goggles included on this list being that Steve Jobs made mention of them as yet another possible solution for the iPod. As far as the Wrist-mounted option goes, I’m sure that Gucci would love to sell a high-end Bangle-type of video iPod for their upscale female clientele. Though I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one ever coming to market. But that’s the thing about new emerging technologies such as flexible displays—it opens the door to all kinds of possibilities and exciting first-to-market applications. And let’s face it, if anyone could ever make this fly – it’s Apple’s great engineers and industrial designers.

If you’re interested in reading more about the Universal Communication Device, you could find additional information here.

Will Apple introduce Smart iPod Shades?

I began this general-interest report by illustrating an NEC concept design of a flexible display for cell phones. So it’s quite evident that other companies are now hard at work in their labs burning the midnight oil to make this a market reality sooner than you think. It’s really only a matter of time before the flexible and/or scrollable display race begins.

To date however, it appears that the Universal Display Corporation just may have the lead in this new frontier until others make their intentions and/or their inventions known publicly. At present, I’m unaware of any such Apple patent for a scrollable display.

For the time being, it’s interesting to note Universal Display Corporation’s thinking about applications like a wrist-mounted PDA or “other portable” devices that could utilize their new foil based display technology. In fact, considering that they’re now promoting a 4 inch scrollable display, it begs the question: could Apple utilize this technology into their iPod nano?

Being that the iPod nano currently stands vertically at 3.5 inches, a pull-out scrollable 4 inch display could actually be an option for the next iteration of the nano. So why would Apple even considering doing that in the first place you might ask. In a nutshell, how about for a Safari micro-browser application.

Imagine having a cool 4 inch pull-out scrollable display on your iPod nano that would allow you to quickly switch from listening to music to checking out your email or surfing the net without having to squint. A four-inch pull-out scrollable display would actually provide you with much more real-estate than your typical cell phone based micro-browser provides you with today. And as the technology progressed to even larger display formats, the same would apply to other iPods.

On the other side of the equation, UDC’s technology roadmap does provide secondary options for flexible displays by way of Smart goggles. I personally think that this is likely the superior option, being that Apple could simply sell the goggles separately. This way the goggles could be used with the nano, G5 iPod, a possible iPhone and even a notebook, to a certain extent.

Hey, just put on your iPod-Shades and off to La-La land you go. With your iPod shades on you’d be able to not only surf the net and check out your email but also view a Movie or QuickTime Trailer – besides rummaging through iTMS for some new tunes – all with a fairly decent size display before you. You could also be sure that iPod Shades would also come with some pretty cool built-in earphones too.

Being that it’s a known fact that Apple is planning to deliver some form of an over-the-air wireless iPod in the near future, the option of being able to get on the net for more than just shopping for music is painfully obvious. And surfing the net on the iPod’s current minimal screen format isn’t likely to be a smash hit with anyone unless Apple provides us with an option to view content on a larger display that could actually be used by humans. Sorry, but the idea of surfing the net on a cell phone/iPhone or a tiny iPod display is a completely lame idea!

Lastly on this topic, is the fact that Apple already has a patent in place that’ll allow the iPod’s Click Wheel to double as a track pad. So while you’re surfing the net with your new iPod Shades on, your Click-Wheel will simply shift into track pad mode automatically – making net surfing natural for anyone to use. Apple could also use their Mighty Mouse squeeze-action technology on their next iPod’s in conjunction with iPod Shades to make switching from music to the net, to checking email a breeze as the Nike patent suggested recently. So all in all, Apple has a few leap frog features in the wings that would make iPod Shades a smash hit in my opinion.

Flexible and scrollable displays do hold a lot of potential for Apple over the coming months and/or years ahead, especially on the Smart Goggle front. Though I’m sure once we see how scrollable displays actually play out in the market, it’ll spark all kind of ideas of how Apple could take advantage of this technology. Yet for now, my vote is squarely for iPod Shades! How about you?

If you have an opinion, idea or possible application you think Apple could implement in the future, then email me at new@macsimumnews.com

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