This is the sixth post about a cell phone design project that started here.
Considering the amount of time I could allow in modeling, I had to make a choice between the solutions that were presented before. The Mies track and the leather track were, to me at least, the most interesting solutions.
The essence of the project is really expressed in the Mies one, as we're aiming at minimalism and simplicity from the start.
Getting the leather solution further was interesting because this object has a strong statement : you could own a well crafted object (and therefore more expensive) that is not tied to high end technology.
The Mies track
The green led is the visual feedback : it flashes once when a key is pressed.
The blue leds are for the reception level and the red ones for the battery level. A single press on them and they display the level by quarters (1 led = 25%).
The front is three sided to help navigating and choosing the right key to press.
The hold button is pressed "inwards" to unlock the keypad. It stays in this position to act as a sign. The "send/end call" button is just under it : in a single and well placed press, the user can unlock and answer an incoming call.
The bottom cap (incorporating the mic) protects the USB plug and the quick SIM card access.
The leather track
In this case, the light chamfer around the keys, as well as the stiffness difference between the leather and the metal, help the user to point the right key. No plastic in this one, metal only. Leather and plastic rarely feel right...
The hold button is a slider. When it's on the right, thus aligned with the buttons grid, the keypad is unlocked.
The back side can be uncovered to access the SIM card (U shaped cut in the leather) and to slide out the USB plug.
As a conclusion, here is a transcript of Orange's director of technology Norman Lewis about 3G, during the '06 Emerging Telephony conference (link to his talk) :
if every one of our customers, theirs families and their dogs had mobile phones and used them for 6 hours a day for the next 31.7 years, we would get our money back from what we spent on 3G licensing
In other words : a mobile phone transmitting voice only ? It may suits your needs, but not the telephone companies wacked business models.
(Many thanks to Volker Weber and Steven Frank for their feedback)