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Students at the Royal College of Art were set a challenge to design a Mobile to “outperform, outsmart, and outmanoevure everything on the market”. The pic above, and the picture-fest after the jump, show you what they came up with….
One of the winners in the competition, which was sponsored by 3, was the Vase – the phone starts as an “empty vessel”, and gradually fills as the owner decides what they want:
Vase’s designers said that no instructions were needed as users would learn the functions of the phone as they added them.
Another winner, the Teiko, is a handset for children that contains games, parental controls, and GPS (for kid tracking). It also allows children to access info in areas of interest, and is shock-proof, with a retractable earphone (see below):
Finally, owners of the “Free key” decide the function of the 40 keys below a flexible LCD screen, meaning that each device is unique to it’s user, in addition to being intuitive, and hard to replace:
[Via: BBC News]
Commentary: I think these designs are an absolutely cracking good effort – whilst we might all have our opinions on what the best looking/functioning Mobile phone should be like, it’s great to see raw young talent used to design the most pervasive portable consumer device in the world. And 3 and the Royal College of Art should also be applauded for running the competition.
I am not reviewing the competition, but I am awarding 3 and the Royal College of Art a full 5 stars for innovation on Ben’s scoring system:
Good work 3 and the Royal College of Art! 
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
