HP Showcases Flexible Displays, Hints At webOS Future

There's been all sorts of speculation out there ever since HP acquired Palm. While plenty of folks out there would just be happy getting some new smartphones, there's even more who would love to see webOS on other things. Yes, tablets included. And while HP has said they're committed to exploring all of those options (smartphones included, thankfully), their own Research & Development department is obviously looking at other things as well. For example, while Phil McKinney of HP was on stage at MobileBeat 2010, he showcased something else HP is hard at work on: flexible displays.

We've seen all sorts of different variations of flexible displays over the years, but HP's is a bit different. Printed on Mylar, it's similar to E-Ink, has a low-power profile, and can be made into pretty much any size you want. All the way down to a 3.5-inch handset display, even. It's full color, as well, so we won't be seeing the future of (HP) smartphones in black and white, thankfully.

There was nothing definitive about HP making a flexible display-based handset, let alone one that would be utilizing the mobile Operating System, webOS, but there were some hints interesting enough that we felt like it may be a possibility some time in the future. HP's obviously looking at all sorts of different aspects in the mobile market, which they've never really been all that dominant in. With the technology powering webOS, and whatever else their R&D department is working on, it seems to us that they're likely to come out of the gate in a full gallop.

[via PreCentral]