Two patents filed by Samsung with the regulatory body World Intellectual Property Office and recently released by the Lets Go Digital website, show what the connected watches of the future could be.
The idea behind the drawings, for now graphic representations of concepts and not prototypes, is to apply a flexible panel to smartwatches, similar to the one that allows the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 screens to fold and unfold.
In the case of wearables, however, the mechanism is not for unfolding like a book but for scrolling the portion of the display.
The description of the project speaks of "rollable smartwatch".
This transforms a traditional surface like that of the Galaxy Watch 4 into a wider and elongated one. In the diagrams, the hinge that folds the panel is clearly visible in the center of the clock. In a second patent, Samsung illustrates the same technology, combined with a more squared-off smartwatch, which refers to the Apple Watch. For the particular design, here the fold would be less clear and supported by an opening of the display with a mechanism that resides under the body, so as to hide it further. As happens in dozens of other cases for companies in the technology sector, the existence and obtaining of an intellectual property do not consolidate the concrete existence of a project, beyond the ideas and technical specifications, even if detailed in every detail as for the rollable smartwatch.
According to the latest quarterly report of the analysis firm IDC on the wearable market, among the leading companies Samsung is the one that has seen the most growth in the shipments of the "wearable" sector globally.
The Korean is in second place, behind Apple, with 12.7% of the market share.
Same figures as Xiaomi, which lost 23.8% on an annual basis.