First ELSE Phone Rethinks the Mobile Phone

While there’s a new cell phone released just about every day, most are satisfied with building upon what’s already been done. Perhaps a speedier processor is added, or an extra megapixel tacked on, but the user experience remains largely the same. The First ELSE phone fixes on setting that experience on its ear and providing the user with something totally different.

Instead of a phone with a bunch of other functions and apps, the First ELSE is a multi-functional device with a phone. The phone is pulled out of the forefront of the device and relegated to the role of single application, putting it on par with all the other extras. Users can select the phone when they want to make a call or send a text and can exit out of the phone and use other devices like camera and GPS separately.

That type of interface offers both pros and cons. Reps were quick to point to the convenience of not having the phone interrupt as you roll the video cam on a priceless moment. On the other hand, sometimes you want the phone to interrupt you from less important activities, which is why you purchased a mobile phone in the first place. As handy as cameras, video cams and MP3 players are, they’re not the reason you tie down two years of $75-per-month service. Given the popularity of bundling more and more devices into a phone platform, it is interesting to see a company take a different direction, however.

The phone is scheduled to hit in Q2 of next year and the U.S. has been cited as a target market. We’ll see how this new paradigm works out. [Pocket Lint via Slippery Brick]

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