CES 2013: Samsung Whets Mobile Users’ Appetite for Bendable Screens

The rise of mobile computing devices, like tablets and smartphones, has freed users from the chains of the desktop. This shift has thankfully not resulted in a compromise in terms of usability and forward-thinking design.

Crowd-pleasing products from Apple, Samsung, HTC and more, prove that the “cool factor” is alive and well when it comes to mobility.

Perhaps one of the biggest contributors to the high-end look of mobile devices is the dominance of the all-glass front for smartphones and tablets. Apple started this trend with the first iPhone in 2007 and kicked it up another notch with the iPhone 4, which had a glass front and back.

The glass shells made the phones look like exquisite works of art, but they came with a price: They’re prone to damage.

Samsung has been working on a flexible, bendable display for a few years now but the company upped the ante at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show with a full-on display of its bendable displays, which the company is calling Youm.

Watch a demo of the technology below.

It’s important to note that as awesome as this technology looks, there haven’t been any official announcements about when we will see Youm in devices and how it will impact the cost of any future devices.

That being said, what Samsung demoed at CES is a significant improvement over previous demos of bendable display technology. For starters, this round of Youm prototypes were four times clearer than the previous models.

Bendable displays will be great for parents who want to share mobile devices with kids, or workers who use tablets in field likes construction and manufacturing. The less fragile our devices become, the bolder users can be with the technology.