LG has announced it is to start mass-production of what it calls the "world's first flexible OLED [organic light-emitting diode] panel for smartphones".

 LG announces curved screen phones 

to launch in 2014

The news comes weeks after Samsung made a similar announcement

Samsung said it intended to launch its first product - a special edition of the Galaxy Note 3 - later this month

Both companies already use the technology to offer curved OLED television sets

Although the displays used in the TVs are in theory "flexible", they are mounted in fixed shells so they cannot be bent or otherwise re-shaped by the owner

A press release from LG's display division indicated its handset screen would curve from top-to-bottom rather than side-to-side, the design Samsung described in a recent patent

It said the advantage of using the tech was that the panel was "bendable and unbreakable"

"For example a device that you snap round your wrist or a traditional shaped smartphone whose screen wraps around the sides onto a bit of the back so that the edges become touchscreen rather than hard buttons."