A Round Phone

The phone has always been a rectangle. What if it was round though? Display technologies have a long and rectangular history. Before smartphones there were movie screens, TVs, and computers, not to mention paintings and pages of print. And then of course there are windows—in some ways the original glass rectangles. From an engineering point of view, it is a design that is easy to make and leaves very little waste. The bottom line here is that frames matter. After all, a round screen is not great for browsing a twitter feed. We have become so entranced by our mobile applications and devices that we are extremely good at finding distractions. This phone from Runcible still has a long way to go before it makes it to the market. Besides, it is definitely easier said than done. People will not so easily give up their rectangles. A circular device would sever the link to the printed page, the TV and the computer, and invite software developers to look in other places for inspiration. Rectangles will endure. They're easy, they're efficient. Circles are zen. Just something to think about.