The concept of page regions was introduced through SmartTarget on page template level and has been built on by the Experience Manager.
SDL Tridion R&D is currently working on how to expose page regions in content manager and the UIs. As this is a topic that affects the way we implement Websites, we will be hosting an information and feedback session on 27 June 2013 from 16:00 to 18:00 CET.
The details of the session will be announced in the SDL Tridion Pulse Linkedin group.
I look forward to your feedback.