Your eyes are not deceiving you; the Techlords have answered your prayers (or at least mine).
This concept of “foldable tablets” is coming out soon, as Samsung revealed its latest prototype, the very first of flexible display screens to hit the market predictably in 2015. Apparently, the idea has already been in progress since 2012 when the company filed for patent for a “tri-foldable, flexible display”. This basically means that you can easily convert a tablet into the size of smart phone for easy convenience and portability.
It was reported that Samsung originally considered dual displays but ended up heading towards the idea of folding them instead. That certainly possesses far more advantages of shrinking the two gadgets into one even though it might be trickier to create.
However, it seems like with the use of OLED (organic light emitting diode) along with the recent breakthrough of graphene (an ultra thin replacement of silicon used in semi-conductors), the former has since been applied for foldable e-readers as well, first unveiled by Nokia and the Advanced Film Device. Both are also rumored to be present in Samsung’s full HD resolution 8 inch by 9 inch prototypes.
In addition to such technological improvements on the hardware, Samsung is also in the making of complementary software that can be developed in time to match this next generation of foldable tablets. This remains to be speculative as well, given a source cited by Daum talks about the creation of a “killer app” that could possibly push the market for the demand of such devices.
While the shrinking of electronic products is common (just take a look at our latest television sets or mobile phones compared to those in the past), the concept of being able to fold them is completely new. Of course, the question of thickness remains to be seen, but I am extremely confident because this implies the elimination of many other devices is on the way for greater convenience. Some has also astutely pointed out how this might serve to fit nicely in most ladies’ handbags as opposed to carrying an assortment of bulky devices.
Interestingly, there is already a first ever “foldable” smartphone that exist in the market known as PaperFold but that is only a prototype despite its amazing ability to project Google Maps onto all 3 screens and be shaped to be a 3D building as on the map, turning the device into a model that could be printed by the 3D printer.
Therefore, one of the greatest obstacles involves incorporating some form of aesthetic appeal into this ability of being able to fold a tablet. While Samsung has stated that this concept is only at the beginning stage, much of the success will hinge on if such new element could revolutionize the current usage of the smart phones and tablets and thus prove that all of the efforts of making it “foldable” is deemed worthy.
I am optimistic though that the future holds plenty of other potential amalgamations and this is surely a start which opens up a whole new world of other possible combinations which can be considered between two gadgets of seemingly different purposes.
Also read: Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if the rumored iPhone 6 had these features?