Dumb-phone revision

I really like dumb-phones. Cheap, battery lasts forever, durable and I don't end up wasting my time on angry birds.

I have two problems: I keep forgetting not to lock my keys and my phones usually last for two years max because they wear so badly. So I designed this phone + cover combo that would be fast to open when answering a call, but would protect the phone really well. And you could use the cover opening as a "wake up" for the phone so no need to lock keys separately.

Here's the one handed opening bit more illustrated:

The cover has only speaker in it, so it should be quite cheap part to change when it wears out. I'd like to note that this is just a sketch and I got few things wrong. There are no ports yet, and the damn thing is too big.

The keys

Then I started to question why we still have number keys on phones? Normally I just pres "yes" "no" and go through lists. Lot's of lists. So I just put there buttons for "yes" and "no" and a scroll-wheel for easy list scrolling. And a square button for navigation.

So the idea to write with this goes like: you wheel your way through letters and numbers and they appear at the screen in groups of four. Then you click on this special button to select one of the four, then you spin the wheel again.

So what do you think?


PS. this is actually just recycling old ideas:
http://www.boldoldphones.com/black%20phone%20white%20face.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pocket-knife_London.jpg