Huawei's new smartphone, the Ascend P7
A hostess holds Huawei's new smartphone, the Ascend P7, launched by China's Huawei Technologies during a presentation in Paris, May 7, 2014. The mobile - billed as the world's slimmest phone at 6.5 mm thick - will go on sale in 31 markets, including Britain, Germany and China, starting this month for 449 euros ($630) without a SIM card or service contract. It will not be sold in the United States. Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

University of Akron scientists are developing a shatterproof touchscreen film that would provide greater protection to smartphones. So far, they have developed transparent electrodes that when layered on polymer surfaces would be transparent like the current ones made of indium tin oxide (ITO).

ITO is brittle and becoming increasingly expensive to produce, the university researchers said.

However, it would be more durable and it could be bent more than 1,000 times without breaking. It also doesn't peel and would not be expensive. It would also offer better electrical conductivity, said Yu Zhu, assistant professor of polymer science at the university.

The university researchers believe it would be cheaper to produce it than the available touchscreens on the market by mass producing it in rolls.

But there is no definite production timetable yet.