HTC patent guarantees there'll be no way to "close" your phone
[Via Unwired View]
[Via Unwired View]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
youngcalihottie @ Mar 18th 2008 6:30AM
thats kinda cool. even if it never comes out its always nice to see innovation
BigD @ Mar 18th 2008 6:34AM
I guess it depends on how thin the screen is. If it's really thin...it will probably just feel like a candybar with a slight battery bump.
CB17 @ Mar 18th 2008 6:48AM
Aaaaaand.... THIS is why the iPhone is so popular. Because a year later and HTC is still trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead of making hover cars.
Dave @ Mar 18th 2008 9:34AM
Right, because no company tries that.
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/03/17/apple-patent-application-hints-at-iphone-flip-phone/
I'm not saying the iPhone doesn't deserve its time in the spotlight... just pointing out that even Apple themselves know that it's worth questioning and innovating.
Aw, heck, I'll go further and say that I think the biggest reasons why the iPhone is so popular is that it's a pretty-well-designed device that is a good, natural evolution of their already-popular iPod series. You could argue that with this evolution Apple themselves reinvented the wheel, as they decided to drop the click wheel in favor of gestures.
And to thoroughly beat a dead horse... if the "wheel" you're talking about is "having a physical keyboard", then I'd argue that it's still worth reinventing since people are still discovering what will work best for those who want/need a physical keyboard.
I do suspect that this phone won't quite settle nicely in the hand when using it in the candybar form (the thickness profile must be the opposite of many TV remote controls, I figure), but it's definitely interesting.
CB17 @ Mar 18th 2008 4:39PM
Your first argument fails unfortunately, because you used a horrible example and because your wrong. At least with Apple's patent they're trying something radically different than what's already out there, whereas HTC just thought: "Oh let's take our current sliders and slide them the DIAGONALLY. OOOOOO, let's PATENT that. Oh and btw, maybe we should add a number pad to the end so that it's always sticking out. Yeah that makes LOTS of sense" At least with Apple they're trying something like put touchscreens all over the device so that the SAME UI can be used EVERYWHERE, even when it's closed. No phone does that (see: failed attempt Voyager and other clamshell qwerty phones).
Anyways, just like Windows Mobile, HTC has been taking the same 2 designs and just upgrading them for the last 5 years. And honestly, I'm getting tired of it and they're not the only ones. It's amazing, though, that a year and a half after the iPhone announcement and that's still where they are.
And, yes, reinventing the wheel IS trying to make slide out keyboards work. I think Apple has proven that that you can do a whole lot more without one and still make it work REALLY well.
johdaxx @ Mar 18th 2008 11:31AM
Kind of like a Thinkpad 701C in your pocket. Or a Stowaway keyboard and a HTC Tilt had a baby. Sounds like pure gadget-nirvana to me!
Blaqpoet @ Mar 19th 2008 9:01AM
This is a very innovative design. I think what the writer of the article didn't notice is that when the phone is closed, it is in a candybar-form (hence the bottom of the QWERTY keyboard having a sideways numeric keypad). Then you can flip the screen from candybar to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, a la sidekick, lol. I'm just not going to hold my breath because this is probably headed to Asia.