There was murmurs that Samsung is looking into alternative materials when the HTC One garnered so much praise for its aluminum unibody. However, the South Koreans may have had a completely different material in mind – carbon fiber.
Samsung Petrochemical and SGL Group formed a joint venture to "develop new industrial and electronic applications with carbon composite materials for Samsung and the Korean market." Obviously, much of the carbon fiber will go to industrial products, but electronics and electronic media is mentioned in the press release several times.
As is the need for lighter products and weight is a big factor in modern smartphones. Of course, the press release makes no direct mention that future Samsung phones will use carbon fiber and by the sound of it the initial target is the Korean market.
Still, we'd love to see more carbon fiber phones – so far it has seen limited use in luxury phones and a handful of LG phones (the Secret line), but tough and light phones sound great, fingers crossed.