tell me... what are the benefits of a curved display?
Curved or flexible?
CURVED
Both the Galaxy S and the Galaxy Nexus, while not having actual curved displays, do have curved glass fronts, concave from top to bottom. Not as dramatic as the original teaser ads showed, but here's the idea:
So what's the purpose? Well, for one thing, it's more ergonomic than a straight slab. The curved shape fits nicely into many pockets. It also fits the face better for calls.
More importantly, and this is a biggie, a curved screen follows your thumb. Unlike the simple 2D thumb arc on a hard flat surface that Apple advertised about, thumbs actually move in 3 dimensions. It's much more natural for a thumb to swoop in a slightly concave motion.
A totally different use for curved screens is to simply continue the display around the edges. For example, even if a cover is closed, notifications are still visible:
FLEXIBLE
Now things get fun. The most obvious usage is so that it can actually flex to fit your pockets:
Or we could have devices that can be rolled up, like the Philips Fluid concept:
More practically, I'm looking forward to the day that Samsung might build their combination smartphone/tablet:
Alas, flexible displays are still a ways off from commercial use, I think.