At some point in ancient history someone realised that a thin pliable material was much more convenient to carrying around than a heavy, brittle stone and stick of charcoal. The world moved on and we replaced our nice flexible, tactile paper notebooks with a heavy, brittle slab of electronics. People who regularly stash their phones in their back pockets will rightly rejoice at the thought of a device which will deform under their own weight without either breaking or causing discomfort.
There will inevitably be a plethora of use cases that just don’t need to exist, but some will be genuinely innovative and useful. A quick skim of the wikipedia page on flexible screens indicates some fascinating insights.
I am hoping that the clever people behind these technologies are being motivated not just by a race for neat or novel products but also on reducing impact on people, resources and environment so that these products will have a value that reaches far beyond our addiction to convenience.
In response to a post by Stephan Bartlett on LinkedIn.