Mozilla's Seabird Concept Phone: A Dreamy Look into the Future of Smartphones

This is a guest post by Angelita Williams.

Mozilla's Seabird Concept Phone: A Dreamy Look into the Future of Smartphones

While faster and "smarter" smartphones are being brought out on the market with increased frequency, many of us are left wondering what a mobile phone will look like a few decades ahead. A few weeks ago, Billy May, a member of the Mozilla Labs community, released a mobile phone design that he developed in his spare time. Culling together information about technology that's already available and collaborating with others in the community, May put together a collective vision of the next generation of smartphones.

Mozilla Lab's website demonstrates what this phone, called the Seabird, would look like and what it would be capable of doing. The most interesting facet of the phone is that it has two pico projectors built in, meaning that when placed on a dock it can project a computer screen on any surface, as well as full-sized keyboard. It would then effectively function as a laptop or netbook.

Another interesting feature of the Seabird is that it can be charged wirelessly, eliminating the need for clunky and inconvenient phone chargers. At the base of the phone is a USB port, and the phone's back has an embedded dongle, which can be removed from the phone to function both as a Bluetooth headset and a controller that can interact with the phone in 3D space. In other words, the dongle enables you to click, zoom, and pan on the phone without even touching the screen. Another notable feature is an 8 megapixel camera.

While Mozilla Labs has noted on its website that it has no future intention of producing such a phone, it should be emphasized that every feature of the Seabird uses technology that already exists, so such a phone being manufactured is entirely within the realm of possibility. The Seabird was designed to hypothetically operate on an Android platform.

Billy May is an award-winning product designer who specializes in consumer electronics. His video, both in 2D and 3D, can be found on YouTube. The 2D Mozilla Seabird video has been viewed over two million times, indicating the consumer interest in the product. Although May took the lead on the design, he interacted with many consumers about what frustrates them about smartphones today, and found that physical interaction was the aspect most lacking.

So will we see a Seabird type smartphone in the near future? Perhaps not, but we can always dream, and we'd be doing so realistically.

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of college courses. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.