Maple Phone

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Maybe you read about the Luxury Mpingo Phones from Gresso. They are made of African Blackwood, a very expensive material on the commercial timber market.
Now i want to present to you the Maple Phone from 2 designers that won Silver at the International Design Excellence Awards 2008 ( IDEA) competition for the Free Wind, best room air conditioner design.
Hyun Jin Yoon and Eun Hak Lee created a camera phone concept covered in thin wooden film, with touch sensitive buttons that light up through the housing when you touch the phone.




The cell phone measures 4.5 x 10.4 x 9.8 cm and is a slider with functions like calling, texting, MP3 player and digital camera. It provides basic cell phone functionalities in a cool and unique handset inspiring “special emotion” with its soft feel and a natural look.
The touch-sensitive sensors located in the back of the housing turn on the backlight, responding to your finger touch, bringing the wood to life. It would probably use the capacitive touch technology, which is a special panel coated with indium tin oxide or a similar material capable to conduct continuous electrical current across the sensor.
Maple’s LCD display reveals itself from back as you slide the phone.



This wood phone concept would be manufactured at lower costs and it’d surely be available at an affordable price, much lower than the 3500 Euro Gresso phones.
Other wood phones use special plastics instead of wood, both for the keep it green idea and for an easier manufacturing process.