New LED type?

In various stores recently, I've noticed a new type of LED in flashlights. It looks large and flat with tiny dots in about 3 rows on it. When the light is turned on, the "beam" is just a complete flood, with no spot whatsoever. It looks like something that would be more at home in a lantern than out the front of a flashlight. I used different words in google image searches to try to come up with an example, but can't find anything. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What kind of LED is it?

EDIT: Just did some more looking and discovered that it's called a COB LED. Here's a link to a picture of one. http://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1ZtE3JVXXXXaZXXXXq6xXFXXX1.jpg

Hardly new, COBs have been around for years.

Given the large emitter area, it's impossible to get any kind of spot without a huge optic. I agree they are not appropriate for what most people want in a flashlight, but I can also imagine some applications where it might be just what the doctor ordered. That's why people make 'mules'.

It's surprising to see them pop up in retail products labeled 'flashlights', but not surprising to see them in worklights, droplights, lamps, luminaries, or other things intended to illuminate a large area at relatively short distance.

To illuminate a small area at relatively long distance (like a traditional flashlight), you want a more concentrated light source. The science of optics tells us that the smaller the light source is, the smaller the optics necessary to focus it, and vice versa.