Your phone's cracked screen may one day heal itself, but try not to drop it for now
- Reference: 1697027143
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/10/11/selfhealing_smartphone_screens/
- Source link:
In the analyst's published expectations for the technology landscape in 2024 and beyond, it believes that by 2028, we will see displays for smartphones and other consumer electronic devices that will be capable of self-healing in response to minor scratches and dents.
It has become a common sight to spot people on public transport and elsewhere using handsets with large visible cracks in the display, but CCS Insight isn't saying it expects to see a solution for that issue, and instead thinks the cure will fix only minor damage such as scratches from house keys and the like.
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"What we're saying is that we expect to see something like a nano coating for displays that if it gets scratched will react with the air to create a new build-up of material," chief analyst Ben Wood told us.
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The tech isn't currently available, but based on developments CCS Insight said it is witnessing in the phone sector, it decided to "put a stake in the ground" and predict a launch before 2028 by either a smartphone maker or a glass company such as Corning, famous for its Gorilla Glass.
This isn't a completely new idea. LG produced a phone called the [4]G Flex back in 2013 that had a curved, flexible screen and the rear cover was said to have a special coating that could self-repair hairline scratches.
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"It didn't work very well," according to Wood.
[6]Google pays Apple $18B to $20B a year to keep its search in iPhone
[7]Apple blames iOS 17 bug for overheating iPhone 15 woes
[8]Search for phone signal caused oil spill, say Japanese investigators
[9]Teardown reveals iPhone 15 to be series of questionable design decisions
Motorola was [10]granted a US patent back in 2017 for a phone display that can heal itself if cracked, and it seems to be an evergreen rumor among Apple followers that the igizmo maker is on the brink of delivering a [11]device with a self-healing screen , possibly as part of a folding iPhone model.
CCS Insight has also itself previously published a [12]blog about a self-mending glass technology uncovered by researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan that could potentially lead to self-healing screens for phones.
So what is new now? Wood told us that there are lots of people working on this concept at the moment, which led the company to believe that it is a capability which will soon come to market.
CCS Insight's [13]other predictions include that all the current hype around generative AI will experience a "cold shower" in 2024 as the realities of cost, risk, and complexity start to bite; and EU legislation aimed at regulating AI will be delayed and redrawn multiple times due to the speed at which the technology is evolving.
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The company also expects that more than half of Apple iPhones in use by the end of 2023 will be secondhand devices. As a consequence of that, Apple will move to take greater control of the second-hand iPhone market in 2024 by introducing a "Verified" grading system. ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2013/10/28/lg_g_flex_smartphone/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZSbGomXCU3dcIjFXxROWVQAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/google_pays_apple_18_20_claims_bernstein/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/03/apple_ios_17_overheating_fix/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/signal_search_caused_oil_spill/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/26/iphone_15_teardown/
[10] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/17/motorola-self-healing-smartphone-screen.html
[11] https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/01/future-folding-iphones-may-repair-scratches-or-dents-in-the-display-by-themselves
[12] https://www.ccsinsight.com/blog/phone-screen-heal-thyself/
[13] https://www.ccsinsight.com/company-news/ccs-insights-predictions-for-2024-and-beyond-revealed/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZSbGomXCU3dcIjFXxROWVQAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Yup...
My HTC Touch Pro survived a half-decade of abuse, was even run over by a car and only sustained the tiniest of scratches on the screen (though it did need a replacement battery cover).
These days you only need to look at your 'phone the wrong way and it cracks.
Re: Yup...
Same with the plastic lens for eyeglasses. Look through them and bam, scratched.
Self repairing screens? Even when some clever boffin has invented the technology, it won't be used on phones - it would remove one of the incentives to upgrade.
rumor among Apple followers that the igizmo maker is on the brink of delivering a device with a self-healing screen
The iPhone 15 was a near miss, it seems to be self-hea t ing. One little letter...
20-something years of owning a mobile, keeping it in my pocket every single day with metal keys, never using a screen protector, dropping it down things like concrete staircases, and not once ever scratching or cracking a screen.
I honestly don't know what junk you're buying and/or what kind of childish "care" you're taking of your expensive phones to ever have cracked them short of running the damn things over.
The one cracked screen in my household was due to a teenager throwing a strop (and a phone...) We tend to get through a lot of scratched and cracked screen protectors in normal use though...
A guy in a shopping mall was trying to sell me a screen protector.
He demonstrated it by hammering a nail into a block of wood using his iphone.
I told him I didn't need one because I already had a hammer.
CCS Insight
So, Gartner now has a little brother ?
Yup...
Tech review...
My Android phone is always falling out my pocket, being dropped, knocked off a something etc., has a huge screen crack across it and the bottom of the screen seems to be peeling off and has assorted muck buried under it. Still works though so I'll wait.
My GF has 2 iphones, both with screen cracks. I think her record is something like 25 mins from package opening to "bugger". I wonder what the world record is? She trained herself on Kindles and is now on #4 which appears to be indestructable.
My win 8 phone (now resting in a drawer) survived huge abuse without issue.
Overall, I think new phones need to go to a phone gym and buff up a bit.