World's First Phone with fold-away screen launched

Dutch company unveils world’s first fold out phone with flexible polymer screen. The original screen, a size of two business cards, folds into the standard mobile phone size with no change in properties.

The product produced by Polymer Vision owned by Philips has a normal size of 5 inch (13 cm) screen, which itself is the largest screen size of any comparable phone or PDA in the market. This large screen is flexible unlike other screens and easily folds into a mobile phone size as shown in the video and in the picture.

The gadget now is in production and will compete later this year with other mobile phones such as iPhone as well as with other e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony Reader. The reader has a unique display screen that rival’s Amazon’s Kindle book reader.

Karl McGoldrick, chief executive of the venture capital-funded firm, in which Philips still has a 25 percent stake said to Reuters:

You get the large display of e-reading, the super battery life of e-reading, and the high-end connectivity ... and the form factor and weight of a mobile phone…We are taking e-reading and bringing it to the mobile phone."

McGoldrick didn’t give the price for this model but said it will be comparable to high end mobile phone and may depend on the phone companies who may charge differently based on subscription and data plans.

The Readius has an electronic paper screen and the text and images that appear on its screen looks like it is printed on paper.

Users will be able to set up their email accounts, news sources, podcasts, audio books and blog feeds at home on their computer, and the data is then pushed to the device whenever it is updated.

Except for the screen, the device will be just like any other mobile phones in the market. But with the larger screen, good readable screen, low power requirements and foldable screen, many would prefer this gadget over other products.

The first model will not have too many features in it but McGoldrick said more functions and features will be added in future models.