Over the past couple years small LCD screens have been popping up all over. Besides common places like car headrests and dashes I’ve seen them incorporated in all kinds of other products ranging from treadmills to refrigerators. I haven’t seen too many computer related uses of them, however. The consumer market has been so ga-ga over bigger and bigger monitors, I’ve been thinking I was about the only guy around sporting a second monitor so small (I built my computer almost two years ago).
Then all of the sudden I’ve been seeing news from a recent electronics show, and there seems to be new interest in small screens for computer systems. First, Samsung was showing off a 24″ monitor than accommodates an extra 7″ screen. The small screen is attached via an arm to the back of the main monitor and can be positioned above or to either side. It also rotates on the arm so you use it in portrait or landscape mode.
The other related product recently announced is a tablet PC which has an attached, pivoting 7 inch secondary screen. Besides additional workspace, the main intent of this is targeted at small presentations. The presenter can set the laptop up with the large screen facing the audience (of 2 or 3) and they turn the small screen to face themself. This makes sharing ideas a little more convenient than looking over someone’s shoulder at a meeting. An original idea I’d say, but I doubt there’s much market for it.
