What’s The Killer App For Bendable Or Curved Screens?
The Problem
In recent times, a number of manufacturers have experimented with curved television screens. Also, a number of rumors have made the rounds suggesting that smartphone manufacturers will be coming out with bendable devices. However, do we really need these?
The Solution
History is replete with examples of technology that were before their time or were significantly repurposed from a failed original notion into something novel and successful. Rather than using bendable displays for smartphones, maybe they should first be used for making globes.
In science fiction, holograms are often used to study models of planets as a 3D globe, allowing characters the ability to observe geography and weather from a more omniscient view. However, the use of holograms in this manner is practically impossible with today’s technology, but with bendable screens laid out to match the gores of a globe, this is possible today.
While bendable screens are just now becoming economical for commercial use, the cost of an interactive globe might be outside the average person’s budget, but once economies of scale come into play by providing these devices to educational, scientific, and meteorological organizations, every school child will have one in his or her bedroom just as I had a globe in mine when growing up.
What Were They Thinking? 