Pictures of BenQ-Siemens prototype concept phones
Mobile Phones?
If you thought BenQ were a lower-tier mobile phone manufacturer, these new BenQ concept phones show they’ve got big ideas. And fresh from merging with Siemens’ mobile phone business, the plucky Taiwanese phone company now also has the facilities to actually implement them, too. In fact, according to BenQ man Adrian Chang, they plan to follow the Sony Ericsson route and rebrand as BenQ-Siemens for the next few years, emphasizing “a kind of German heritage in terms of engineering strength.” Better still, through their Siemens partnership, 60% of their mobile phone revenue comes from Europe, so they’ll definitely be rolling out their new releases world-wide, rather than locking them up in the Asia-Pacific markets.
But enough talk - read on to see more of the new BenQ-Siemens concept phones. I’ll even tell you what BenQ stands for, too!
BenQ-Siemens concept phone 1: the Rollerdeck model
The first BenQ-Siemens concept phone looks stunning, and features an innovative ‘rolling slider’ mechanism. This, apparently, is designed for strength, protecting the phone for rugged use. Certainly gives it a seriously cool appearance as well!
BenQ-Siemens concept phone 2: Gamer’s Delight
The second BenQ-Siemens concept phone is this, a mobile game phone, designed, perhaps unwisely, to take on the now-dead Nokia N-Gage. However, rather than being a standard (albeit odd-shaped) candybar like the N-Gage, the new BenQ-Siemens concept phone has a few twisty tricks up its sleeve. Twist it round, origami-like, and you can turn it into…
…er, a chair! Apparently, “the overall appearance and the position of the interface elements are adjusted to Outdoor Gaming needs and style.” So, if you want to sit down after some serious game-play, you must, er, position the interface elements into a seating position, to take the weight off, so to speak (yes, I’m winging it on this one - I’ve no idea what it does in this position!)
BenQ-Siemens concept phone 3 - the Jaw Phone
Finally, we have the BenQ-Siemens concept phone number 3 - the ‘Jaw Phone’. This strikingly handsome phone also includes LED lights on the side, which obviously display any text message you receive. Apparently, LED lights were chosen as they “have always been associated with future technologies” - well, yes, they were back in 1977! Still, it’s a good looker, but I’m not sure about those LEDs.
What does BenQ stand for?
Finally, for those of you just itching ton know what BenQ stands for, wonder no more. The company BenQ began life in 1984 as wholly-owned subsidiary of Acer, before being spun off as a company in its right. The name BenQ is a translation from the company’s original Chinese slogan, “Bring Enjoyment aNd Quality to life”. Choose random letters from that phrase (which is still the company’s mission statement), and you get BenQ. I assume this isn’t how the UK’s B and Q DIY store got their name!
So that’s BenQ: relative new-comer to the mobile phone stage, still small compared to the big players, but with some big ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing what the new BenQ-Siemens brings us in the coming years ahead.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, all these designs came from German design house, Product Visionaires - now a wholly-owned subsidiary of BenQ.
