Just like prior buzz technologies, these things often start with no clear purpose outside of their inherent cool factor. Once the novelty of version one-point-uh-oh wears off, useful ideas emerge in the form of wish lists.
For example, VR/AR goggles and smart watches were ridiculed but now are starting to show real promise. A lot of the advancement is directly related to user response and 3rd party development after experiencing the clumsy beginnings.
As for bendy foldy screens, I've been thinking about the way my desk is lined with monitors with varying devel tools here, there and everywhere around me. How about one long seamless U-ish shaped surround screen instead? I'd never have to worry about trying to match colour temperatures etc again. I'll buy it!
For me, if it’s a way to get back to phones that are small enough to use with one hand and fit into the stupidly tiny pockets of women’s jeans, they can’t come soon enough. But if they’re a way to open a phablet into a mid-size tablet they seem pretty pointless.
Larger foldable screens might be kind of neat, too. Imagine a 17” or even 19” laptop that folds into the footprint of a 10” tablet. Suddenly computers with tons of working screen space become far more portable.
Just like prior buzz technologies, these things often start with no clear purpose outside of their inherent cool factor. Once the novelty of version one-point-uh-oh wears off, useful ideas emerge in the form of wish lists.
For example, VR/AR goggles and smart watches were ridiculed but now are starting to show real promise. A lot of the advancement is directly related to user response and 3rd party development after experiencing the clumsy beginnings.
As for bendy foldy screens, I've been thinking about the way my desk is lined with monitors with varying devel tools here, there and everywhere around me. How about one long seamless U-ish shaped surround screen instead? I'd never have to worry about trying to match colour temperatures etc again. I'll buy it!
Define “need”?
For me, if it’s a way to get back to phones that are small enough to use with one hand and fit into the stupidly tiny pockets of women’s jeans, they can’t come soon enough. But if they’re a way to open a phablet into a mid-size tablet they seem pretty pointless.
Larger foldable screens might be kind of neat, too. Imagine a 17” or even 19” laptop that folds into the footprint of a 10” tablet. Suddenly computers with tons of working screen space become far more portable.
I suspect they will never feel very nice because they can't be glass.
Any ideas on how to solve that?
There’s no reason it can’t be glass. Glass can be made highly flexible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend_radius#Fiber_optics says a bend radius of 15 times the diameter of the glass typically is a safe assumption.
That factor 15 doesn’t directly apply to plates of glass, and still might give too high a radius, but this is a hotly researched field.
For nice demos, look at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=12OSBJwogFc
(And of course, there’s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_glass, invented about 2,000 years ago.
I find that kind of hard to believe based on experience. I suspect a .3mm sheet of glass could make a bend radius of maybe 500mm, not 4.5mm.
The numbers just feel way off.
I suspect glass that can safely fold with a 5mm bend radius would be extremely thin and fragile.
I thought Apple and Gorilla were working on foldable glass screens (though what that means I have no idea).