New form factors and display formats for ereaders, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices could be in the offing with the advent of new technologies for curved and flexible screens – some of them just about to debut on the market. Samsung, for example, has just announced its Samsung Galaxy Round, claimed to be “the world’s first curved display smartphone, to be available October 10th in Korea,” with a 5.7” Full HD Super AMOLED curved screen. flexible screens

Not to be outdone, meanwhile, Korean rival LG has announced mass production of the “world’s first flexible OLED panel for smartphones.”

“The flexible display market is expected to grow quickly as this technology is expected to expand further into diverse applications including automotive displays, tablets and wearable devices,” said Dr. Sang Deog Yeo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Display, also promising products based on the new technology by next year. Rollable and foldable displays are just around the corner, according to LG Display.

Samsung itself, remember, showcased a flexible display technology of its own called Samsung YOUM back in January at CES 2013. But in any event, we’ve been here well before. E Ink’s Mobius flexible display TFT technology takes the principle up to advertising display size. And as far back as 2007, Philips spinoff Polymer Vision was … ahem … displaying a device called the Readius with a flexible epaper rollout display. Sadly, before its device could get to market, the company … ahem … folded.

All the same, it appears that flexible screen technology may now be almost ready for prime time. The applications, from smartwatches to foldable e-magazines and e-newspapers, could be very interesting, although I don’t expect the attraction of reading on the curve to last.E Ink Releases Mobius

3 COMMENTS

  1. We already *have* bendy books. The technology is in pretty wide distribution. It involves depositing ink over multiple sheets of cellulose substrate, and – after a curing period – assembling the result between cellulose end-sheets of varying degrees of thickness and density. Best of all, because the page-turning mechanism is supplied by the user, a power source is not required and the resulting “book” can last for dozens, if not hundreds of years !

  2. borax99 must be one of these ‘early adopters’ who get carried away with every new gadget. This ‘book’ that he describes is clearly in that category. It is not only the ease of use that makes e-readers popular. There is the feel of the case, the pleasure of gliding one’s fingers over the touch screen, the old fashioned look and feel of the Kindle keyboard, the smell of the plastic. A ‘book’ will never replace these.

    And has borax99 thought of the further implications of his ‘books’? Each one has to be stored permanently, or disposed of in the recycling. If he keeps them he will have to line rooms of his house with shelves to store these ‘books’. If he throws them away they will put extra pressure on our already hard-pressed recycling process. I suppose he could try to pass them on to friends or give them away to charities, but, quite frankly, I can’t imagine many people will want them. And just think of how many trees would need to be destroyed to manufacture them in the first place.

    Then there is delivery. Does he imagine that there will be shops in every town to sell all the books that he and others might want to read? That would be impossible. I suppose some enterprising entrepreneur could set up a business where ‘books’ were ordered and sent through the post, but that can never be as simple or as fast as receiving a book on an e-reader.

    borax99’s ‘books’ are clearly impracticable.

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