July 6, 2012 by Peter Pachal on Mashable
What will mobile communication of the future look like? Google thinks it could be a pair of glasses; IBM favors mind-reading gadgets.
Designer Federico Ciccarese, however, envisions the same cellphones we’ve been using, just re-imagined. Instead of a touchscreen slab that’s held in the palm, the “iPhone 5 new” features a curved design that’s actually worn on the back of your hand. It’s held in place by five slim and somwhat creepy “legs” which wrap between your fingers and around the wrist.
The main “phone” part of the design looks like the familiar iPhone app array, though the curved casing appears to be flexible — perhaps Ciccarese is channeling Sony’s color e-paper here.
The renderings look amazing, and we love the sci-fi look of the thing, but the creepiness and probable discomfort created by the legs make it a non-starter. And even if he axed the legs in favor of some kind of adhesive (à la the communicators on Bablyon 5), if we learned anything from the belt clips of early 2000s it’s that cellphones do not make good accessories.
We could be wrong, of course. What do you think of the Spider iPhone? And what would you like the real iPhone 5 to look like? Have your say in the comments.