11 people charged with illegally selling Samsung's foldable screen technology

Nine people and two companies have reportedly been charged with illegally selling Samsung’s foldable screen technology to a Chinese rival.According to a report by Bloomberg, the chief executive officer of a Samsung supplier and eight of his employees received $13.8 million for a conspiracy to transfer organic light-emitting diode knowledge.The names of the companies and individuals have not been disclosed.Samsung has said that it is “shocked at the results of the investigation by prosecutors, at a time when competitors are intensifying their technological rivalry.”Last month, Samsung unveiled its unnamed foldable smartphone, currently known as the Galaxy F at its developer conference, and the company will apparently manufacture as many as 1 million units of the device. It now appears that the device will be priced in the range of $1,900 to $2,500, which is about Rs 1,35,000 to Rs 1,76,000, which is quite steep.[caption id="attachment_5520881" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Samsung's folding smartphone. Image: Reuters[/caption]The company CEO DJ Koh recently said that, "possibly when we start selling the foldable phone, it may be a niche market... but definitely, it will expand. I'm positive that we do need a foldable phone."Samsung describes its folding phone technology as Infinity Flex Display and said that mass-production of the device should begin in a "matter of months."The display on the tablet has a resolution of 1536 x 2152 pixels which gives it a 4.2:3 aspect ratio and a screen size of 7.3-inches. When folded, the device is an 840 x 1960 display with a tall aspect ratio of 21:9 and screen size of 4.58-inches.