Amazon recently introduced the second version of their popular electronic reader, Kindle.  It is basically a digital screen with WiFi built in that allows users to purchase complete digital books for around $10.  The idea is that digital books are cheaper since their is no printing costs involved.  The first generation Kindle sold out during the Holiday season despite costing several hundred dollars.  The device claims to give the reader the same experience as reading a real live book due to special ink that mimics ink on a printed page.  While it may be easy on the eyes when compared to others electronic screens it will never be a real page turner due to, well, the lack of pages to turn. 

This may all change in the near future.  According to a recent article on economist.com, HP labs has a new product known as electrophoretic screens that are flexible electronic screens.  They can be bent, folded and rolled up, much like a traditional newspaper or magazine.  Imagine the possibilities if you could take a few of these screens, bind them together like pages of a book, and turn them as you read.  This would allow the traditional user experience to blend with new digital purchase functionality to all for an infinite number of titles to be viewed on a device that simulated the turning of real pages.  Every time the screen, or page, is turned, the device would know that the next "page: would pick up where the previous "page" ended.

If I am a newspaper or media company, I would invest heavily in this emerging technology because if it works, the last good reason to purchase printed newspaper, magazine and books "people like to feel something in their hand and turn the pages" will be gone.