Samsung 'Turtle Glass' Could Challenge Corning Gorilla Glass In Battle For Smartphone, Tablet Displays

Watch out Corning. Samsung may be developing its own scratch and shatter resistant glass cover, dubbed Turtle Glass, according to South Korea trademark filings.

The material could be used as a replacement for Corning’s Gorilla Glass display covers, which is used for Samsung’s flagship Galaxy smartphones, such as the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy Note 5, as well as many devices made by other vendors. But Turtle Glass could be used for more than smartphone displays. According to the application filed by Samsung’s display arm, the Turtle Glass trademark could also apply to display cover products for its monitors, tablets, cameras, MP3 player and its flat panel television screens.

It’s not the first time Samsung has considered weaning itself off third-party suppliers. With the latest Galaxy smartphones, Samsung ditched Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors in favor of its own Exynos octacore chips. However, Qualcomm’s chips could return in Samsung’s next flagship -- the so-called Galaxy S7.

At the same time, Samsung is also developing a smartphone with a foldable display -- codenamed Project Valley -- that could debut in January 2016, according to GforGames. Samsung had previously demoed a concept of a phone using a flexible and foldable OLED display during the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Expo in Las Vegas. Details on the smartphone are slim. But it may come packed with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chip, 3GB of RAM and a microSD expandable storage slot, according to SamMobile.

Samsung’s move to develop a new protective glass and foldable smartphone comes in the wake of several quarters of declining smartphone sales as it faces increased competition from both Apple and Chinese smartphone manufacturers, such as Huawei and Xiaomi.

While Samsung has filed for the Turtle Glass trademark, it’s unknown if or when it plans to bring its glass technology to market.