Apple looking for an engineer to help investigate flexible display tech

According to a job listing posted on its website April 1, Apple is looking for a Senior Optical Engineer to lead the investigation on emerging display technologies, including high efficiency LCD panels and flexible displays.

The latter seems to confirm speculation that Apple is interested in incorporating flexible display tech into future iOS devices—something that’s been hinted at in patent filings, and brought up in recent iWatch rumors…

Here’s the description from the job listing, which was first spotted by 9to5Mac:

Major responsibilities include:

-Investigate advanced display technologies. Analyze the trade-offs between design, process, optical performance, and implementation feasibility.

-Drive display & component suppliers on the advancement of materials, design & processes to meet display module and system design goals.

-Work with cross-functional team on the display architecture, prototyping and system integration. Solve critical issues.

-Support the display roadmap with technology.

-Conduct competitive study on display optical design and performance.

A number of tech companies have shown interest in flexible display tech in recent years. Samsung has been showing off its bendable panels at trade shows for years. And at CES in January, both LG and Sharp showed off theirs.

Samsung shows off flexible AMOLED at CES 2011

Apple has several patent applications on file depicting wearable devices with flexible displays, as well as iPhones. But today marks the first time that we have seen real evidence that the company is taking the technology seriously.

Update: it appears that Apple has removed the job listing from its website. Perhaps it’s been filled?