Here are some of the ideas currently being mooted for future phone design. Whether or not they ever become reality, they are still well worth taking a look at. If they ever do become available on the shelf, remember where you first read about them!
Earphones
Mobile phones are getting more compact all the time. This means they are getting thinner, smaller and lighter. Designers are actually working on an ultra-thin phone with a centre-panel that pops out, so that it juts out from the main body. This is designed to fit snugly over your ear, enabling your phone to instantly becoming an earphone – without those annoying cables that are forever getting themselves twisted around each other in knots!
These phone are also being designed to march skin tones that will render them practically invisible when they are in use.
Foldable phones
With advanced design technology there is not need for any phone to be a rigid piece of kit. Instead, far more flexibility is offered by 'packet' phones. Their default state is as a 5cm square shape. But these will be able to fold outwards, as required, enabling the tiny phone to be utilised for a variety of different functions. This solves so many issues with phone size. As more and more of us get used to ever-smaller designs, this will allow us access to multiple functions within a tiny area of storage. The fact that the phone can be conveniently folded away between tasks will allow you to 'switch off' from the demands of carrying the phone around in your pockets. The foldable phone in the photo is from samsung called the "Galaxy Fold".
Shape-shifting
Phones have traditionally been rectangular-shaped, for the most part, for a number of years. This is still the case with modern mobile phones. However, the phones of the future are being created in a host of different shapes and sizes, with aesthetic considerations equal to technological concepts. In this way, phones will become so much more than objects for conversations, or for interacting with software. They will become three-dimensional ornaments or jewels, which can take pride of place on your shelving when they are not actually in use.