UK coating innovation makes a splash for smartphones

It won’t have escaped your notice that smartphones are being marketed with features that have more to do with lifestyle than telephony.

Take the recent UK TV ad campaign for the Samsung Galaxy S7, which featured a young man anxious to receive a call from a young lady he’d exchanged telephone numbers with. The young lady eventually called him, but he fumbled with the phone and dropped it into the kitchen sink. Luckily, his Samsung Galaxy S7 continued ringing despite being immersed in a few inches of water.

Similarly, Samsung’s ‘Quality Assurance’ advert depicts scientists at the company putting smartphones through a series of tests that include water being jetted horizontally at the screens of Samsung phones held at an angle.

It might not seem obvious but there are very good reasons for elevating waterproofing and water-repellent features up the USP rankings. According to IDC, the smartphone market has grown at an average rate of 33 per cent for a decade and the market is maturing. Consequently, handset manufacturers are looking more broadly at the features they offer in order to differentiate their products from those offered by competitors.