Why Not Makes The Whole Phone A Touchscreen?

Random message my phone gave me. But it should be possible.

No one has innovated on the smartphone’s basic design since Apple. Every major new smartphone looks like an iPhone, big screen in the front. It’s as if that’s the end of the smartphones design evolution. But it’s not. Not the logical end at least. Why not make the whole phone a touchscreen? I don’t mean rear keyboards or whatnot, but having the whole thing being a possible interface.

One could say that it’s expensive, but you can use the good display on one surface and crappier ones on the back and sides. That means you could customize the buttons you want, where you want them, etc. The thing wouldn’t have a front or back, ultimately, it would just be a screen.

Folding Phones

Alternately, who wants to but a smartphone, and a tablet, and a Kindle? Why not have a screen that folds out like paper? From the phone size, you unfold it to something bigger. Then you unfold it once more to tablet size. It’s all screen, and the size can change in the same way that we currently interact with physical media. That would be cool.

5 Comments

  2. I was looking at the N9 before I wrote this, but the back on that is just plastic. Also, a friend alerted me that Apple may have just successfully patented their basic form factor, which everyone is copying. Actually, they may have copyrighted what we think of us touch. To me this seems like someone copyrighting the keyboard, but we’ll see.

    I do hope that some innovation comes from somewhere besides the mortal Jobs

    PC Mag

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