I’d asked some of the designers over on the Core77 forums if they wanted some exposure, unfortunately the response was less than pathetic. It’s actually a bit odd. So many designers claim to want exposure, but when it’s offered – no strings attached – they clam up. Except for two of them that is.
One of those designers is Nate Lynch, a consulting designer working out of Florida (Link). As it turns out, while writing this post I discovered Nate consulted on a Motorola product that garnered some attention at CES. The above image is the SD7500 Series 5.8GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Phone System and it took away a CES Innovations 2006 Award in the “telephones” category. I can’t imagine how many telephone entries there were, so getting recognition in this category is pretty cool. Now maybe Nate will stop by and give us a little background on what makes this particular system special.
I’ll be posting the second person’s work Friday (which was originally going to be the day I did a weekly showcase). It’s fun stuff so stop in if you have time.
{Image Copyright © 2005 Motorola}
From a technology standpoint, the Motorola SD7500 is the most advanced home phone on the market, or at least it was while we were designing it. You can pair a handset and base with numerous modules including camera intercoms, cell docks, VoIP bases, and a host of other things that are still in development. And thanks to the 5.8GHz frequency, it won’t interfere with your WiFi network.
All of that embedded technology doesn’t mean anything unless the phone comfortable to use, and that’s where I think we nailed this design. We went to great lengths refining the form of the SD7500 in order to alleviate the discomfort often felt in your hand, or against your ear, when talking on the phone for an extended period of time. I’m not sure what piqued the jury’s interest when awarding this phone a CES Innovation Award, but I’m hoping that had something to do with it.
One more thing…
The picture shown here and on the CES site was taken under a rather makeshift lighting setup. It’s unfortunate that the color scheme and material finishes aren’t shown in their best light. I can’t blame anyone other than myself for that though, as I was the photographer. Be on the lookout for SD7500 in the coming months, I’m fairly certain it will hit shelves in February or March.