Display technology has rapidly progressed over the past couple of years. Just last year companies like Samsung and LG released devices with curved displays which some viewed as a teaser of what's to come in the future. The US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung recently which shows that the company has been working on a display that essentially folds in between like a wallet.
As per the details Samsung has provided in the patent, future smartphones with this display will be able to fold both backward and forward without damaging the display. It describes how the smartphone can be used in a folded position for various tasks such as a calendar or an alarm clock through specific applications.
Samsung filed for this patent back in February 2014 it was published last week by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Even if the company is working on this technology that doesn't mean foldable smartphones are coming in the near future. Samsung already has a lot of patents that describes such future technologies but only it knows for sure when products with these technologies will hit the market.