2005-11-05

My iPhone Ideas

I was cleaning up some files this weekend and came across the iPhone mockup I made in late 2004. I originally posted it to the AppleNova forums, and it went over with a thud.

I still think there are some cool ideas going on here so I thought I'd post it again here and see if it sparks any discussion.



First off, this wouldn't be the desired form factor anymore. I'm thinking the nano form factor now, but I didn't want to spend the time to alter the mockup.

* No numbers - Current cell phone designs seem constrained by the number keys. You know I hate phone numbers, so why would I want to dial one? Well, I don't, and you shouldn't either. If you have to dial, you can spin out a number. Otherwise, it seems like the primary function of a phone is talking, not number pushing.
I admit, this isn't a completely original idea. Nokia already sells a cellphone with no number keys. More manufacturers seem to be hiding the keys in sliders, but that just makes the phone cost more and makes it easier to break.

* Ring lists - Caller ID is cool and all, but setting my phone to only ring a set "whitelist" seems better. Set you phone to ring 4 and 5 star contacts and vibrate the rest. Have some people that you definitely want to talk to (wife, boss, kid's school), even when you might not want your phone to ring for others (Uncle Billy, golf buddy, boss :). Cool, you can do that too.

* Can you say universal dock? Apple's doing that with the pods now. Might as well make that a "standard" dock for other on-the-go peripherals.

Let me guess, you guys all like flip-phones :)

5 comments:

Samantha said...

I don't have a flip phone so I can't say if I would prefer them or not, but this phone right here looks pretty darn cool: http://us.lge.com/vx9800demo/proddetail.do.html

Thelonious said...

Needs an antenna. :)

Text messages impossible?

---ryan said...

>Text messages impossible?

Thank you. That's a real criticism against this design. I could offer up a half-ass solution like carry around a Bluetooth keyboard, but I know that wouldn't really happen in the real world. Maybe no texting is the penalty you would pay for having a phone like this.

I'll have to think about that one some more.

---ryan said...

If I did redo the mockup, it would probably look like this. LOL

crturboguy said...

While I currently have a flip phone, I have rocked the candybar style in the past. It's not a bad design, but it tends to be bulky lenghtwise. I don't know if I could go back to the long form factor. Would the iPhone have music capability, ala the ROKR? I'd have to think that an iPhone would almost have to be for the cell-phone minimalist who doesn't really want to carry a phone (cough, Ryan, Jason) but carry an iPod around and having a basic phone would fit their needs to a T. Heck, if it were simple enough, I could see my grandmother using something like this over a traditional cell phone.

--JOsh