By Natasha Lomas, 19 August 2009 16:45
In the beginning...
The inventor of the first commercial mobile phone - the brick-like Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (pictured above) - probably had an inkling the device would one day become as light and sleek as the Razr below. But did he dream it might end up looking more like a sheet of stained glass? Or be as bendy as a pack of origami card? Probably not - yet tech companies' R&D labs are already experimenting with such sci-fi-esque devices, although they remain largely on the drawing board for now.
More photo stories: Reebok's iPhone app creates user-generated designs
So what will tomorrow's mobiles look like and what fancy features might they have? Find out over the next five pages as silicon.com rounds up some of the characteristics that could feature on the next generation of devices.
Photo credit (top): Motorola; (above): Chris Beaumont/CBS Interactive
Comments
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1. anonymous
I think some of the people in Design have way too much time on their hands.
I haven't seen such a complete waste of time since the bizzare Octopus Router from Talk Talk a few weeks back.
The people at Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola should maybe be contemplating why as the market leaders they flushed their businesses down the toilet and let Apple with the iPhone steal all the glory, and what they can do to recover ground.
What people want...
- 3G phone
- Decent 3G coverage
- Lasts a week on a charge
- Full VGA Touchscreen that does not scratch or get grubby
- Does video and Music
- Has 32-64Gb flash memory
- Has built in SatNav
- Does internet
- Does Apps
- WiFi/Bluetooth
- Costs <£250 (people genuinely don't mind paying for a phone, as long as they don;t get ripped of on monthly subs too).
- Monthly Unlimited Voice/Data/Text/Wifi plan for < £25
Apart from battery life and O2's shoddy 3G network and high subs, Apple are pretty much there.
2. Richard Arblaster
I think anonymous isn't seeing the bigger picture, we all know we want those things.
However we want our mobile devices to be increasingly environmentally friendly, we want to have our mobile devices take up less room in our pockets, bags etc..
We want our devices to consume less power.
Some of us want our mobile devices to look trendy and modern, not stuck with lugging a brick around.
I'm really looking forward to these designs hitting in the market in some form in the future.
3. anonymous
Put it all on one page, you idiots.
4. Richard
Totally not what you want from a mobile not always.
Don't forget that mobiles are becoming miniature computers, something I doubt you could deny is best loaded with tech.
While some of them are flashy and frivolous, such as ericssons offering, Nokia (although entirely wishful) design is jawdropping.
And MIT's offering is amazing, imagining the applications for it.
the reasons it's presented as a mobile is obvious, it's one of the most commonly carried and accessed pieces of equipment which would benefit, but there's nothing to stop it's use in other fields, such as AR, or limit a phone to doing only that which you expect of a phone.