"HP reveals flexible tablet technology at Global influencer Summit"

HP reveals flexible tablet technology, foreshadows wearable screens at Global Influencer Summit

FORGET the doomed TouchPad tablet.

The world's biggest computer maker is preparing to produce new tablets made of flexible but "virtually unbreakable" plastic, with almost “unlimited” low-powered storage unlike anything used in current computers.

The revolutionary technology could also be used to create wearable, powered screens as thin as "the average person's head of hair" that could be slipped on to a wrist and worn like a bracelet.

HP revealed its future technological plans at the Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai yesterday, with HP mobile and immersive experience lab director John Apostolopoulos showing off both science and engineering breakthroughs.

Mr Apostolopoulos said the company's engineering and printing teamed to create flexible plastic displays, printing electronics on to curved plastic as the company had printed words on to curled paper.

"Today's displays are made out of glass, so they're relatively fragile and flat,'' he said. "We have a roll of plastic and as it unrolls we imprint the technology on it.

"With our ability to make (flexible) plastic displays, we believe we can make them as affordable as you can make flat displays today."

Mr Apostolopoulos said in addition to making thin tablets and curved computer monitors, the technology could be used to make wearable screens just 100 microns thick.

"Clearly from here we're not quite ready to go on the fashion runway but this thing is amazing,'' he said.

"It's very thin, very light, also it's virtually indestructible. If I wore it on my arm and I was hit on it it wouldn't break, it would just flex."

Mr Apostolopoulos said the unusual screen technology could be combined with another new HP discovery, a combination of memory and a resistor it has dubbed Memristor, that could deliver energy-efficient, "virtually unlimited" storage.

The storage creation could replace DRAM, flash and hard drive storage in computers.

It could be some time before the technology is available in stores, however, with Mr Apostolopoulos warning that both technologies would not emerge until 2014 at the earliest.

HP declined to detail its current tablet plans at the event, with printing and personal systems group executive vice-president Todd Bradley telling the forum "we'll talk about tablets later".

Mr Bradley confirmed the company would produce Windows 8 tablets at a later stage, but they would have "more of an enterprise and corporate focus than a consumer focus" like the four-day TouchPad.