Dual front
Dual front is a design concept which allows a device to have two distinctive sides, one for each function. It is most commonly used in camera phones.
Advantages
[edit]The main advantage of using a dual fronted device is the enhanced ease of use by having distinctive functions for each side.
For example, having a mobile phone with a dual front for the camera encourages the user to hold the phone horizontally which reduces the learning curve because the buttons and functions are located in similar places to a common digital camera. [1]
Use in market
[edit]
The dual front concept began in 2003 when Sony Ericsson started its camera phone range with the T610 and T630 which could be held comfortably in the style of a real digital camera due to its side-mounted shutter button; they also had rear designs which loosely resembled the design of digital cameras. Sony Ericsson described the design of the T630 as 'Putting an end to phones having a front and a back, the T630 has two sides. One for the camera... the other for telephony...'[2]
With the announcement of the K700i and S700i, Sony Ericsson introduced a new marketing term, "Dual front" to refer to camera phone where the "back" of the handset is styled as the "front" of a digital camera, hence the term of "dual front".[3]
The market responded well to this design and Sharp was the next company to begin designing dual front products, by producing a clamshell phone with a dual front design (Sharp 902).[4] This had not been done before on clamshell phones as it was difficult to find a convenient location to put the camera due to the physical limitations.
Nokia, after observing the continued response towards mobile phones with dual front designs announced the 6111[5] and the 6270/6280 in 2005,[6] all of which had a dual front element to them. They had also previously created a new design which involved the twisting of the top flip in order to create a camcorder like display (as on the 6260).[7] Whilst not strictly dual front, it was later elaborated more to form the N90, N92 and N93.
Samsung's UpStage, released in 2007, features a new form of dual front design, where one side is the phone side and the other side resembles an MP3 player.[8]
Other uses
[edit]Sony Ericsson also used the dual front design in the Japan release, the Sony Ericsson Radiden. On the back it had a separate screen for accessing radio functions.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Sony Ericsson unveils the S700 – an innovatively designed megapixel camera phone with a new communication style" Sony Ericsson. March 9, 2004. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ "Sony Ericsson unveils the T630 camera phone for stylish mobile imaging" Sony Ericsson. October 20, 2003. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ "Sony Ericsson brings camera-style to mobile imaging - unveils the K700 camera phone" Sony Ericsson. 9 March 2004. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ "Sharp 902 Pictures". GSM Arena. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ Hall, David. "Nokia 6111" Archived September 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. iMobile. 14 June 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ Hall, David. "Nokia 6280" Archived September 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. iMobile. 14 June 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ Blandford, Rafe. "Nokia 6260 Review". All About Symbian. 20 December 2004. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ "Samsung F300 Pictures". GSM Arena. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ Camino, Luis. "New Sony Ericsson “Radiden” for Japan". Unofficial Club Sony Ericsson. 31 August 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2007.