The cell phone business has slowly moved away from two-part hinge designs to a more solid candy bar style, as found in the Blackberry and the iPhone.
But if the new design concept revealed today by Fujitsu and NTT DoCoMo is any indication, wireless technology and a little magnetism might give back cell phones its second piece back, with a touch-screen twist. It's like a previously chopped off ugly Siamese brother that was brought back, because he'd suddenly lost some weight and bleached his teeth.
The concept is split up into two playing card-sized touch screens, one a screen and the other a keyboard, and each contains specific hardware that balances the design. The screen piece includes the software and the video card, and the keyboard piece comes with the 3G and other communications.
In order to be able to use it with one hand, a magnetic bar is lined throughout the phone. That way, you can connect them in whichever way it's more comfortable for the user. Unfortunately, we don't know how much resistance the magnetism supports, and holding on to two screens might prove annoying and could lead to dropped phones and cracked screens.
Since there are two different pieces talking to each other through Bluetooth, you could have a series of apps that work with each other and are interchangeable with other people's phones. It's what I imagine a Nintendo DS style community would be like, if you could split your tiny console into two and give one piece to a friend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amVqnCw55n4
