Sony Ericsson patents cellphone docking station

Laptop docking stations are so early-2000s, as Sony Ericsson has already patented what is essentially a docking station for your cellphone, dubbing it a Mobile Phone Multimedia Cradle. As predicted, the envisioned device would function much like standard lappie docking stations do today, as it would dock one's cellphone for charging / syncing, feature a numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard for dialing and typing, a built-in LCD screen for video out capabilities, and a variety of ports for peripheral connections. The device would allow users to surf the web, manage contacts / photos, transfer files, and basically do anything a highly-spec'd smartphone can do, but in your lap (and in place of a laptop). Of course, managing to play nice with every single powerful handset in the world would be a monumental challenge, and we're still a ways off from having a true laptop-replacing cellphone, but we'd wager that this here invention is certainly not a bad one to have on the drawing board. Click on through for a side-angle conception.

[pixelbender @ Feb 1st 2007 12:47PM]

Didn't Apple already announce a phone dock to accompany the iPhone?

If so, Jobs arguable has Sony's (without regard to previous art apparently) design simplified already! ;)

[John @ Feb 1st 2007 1:28PM]

Speaking of "didn't Apple already?" Shouldn't you say laptop docking stations are so mid-90s? (DuoDock, anyone?)

[SubGenius @ Feb 1st 2007 2:05PM]

What are Sony and Ericsson smoking?
How much is that thing going to cost?
Why would I want to use that instead of my laptop?

As the previous poster mentioned, Steve solved this problem a long time ago.
Its called the "Digital Hub Strategy"
You have many specialized devices: cell phone, MP3 player, digital camera, video camera, PDA...
These types of devices often have limited interfaces: small screen, no keyboard...
So you use a computer with a big screen, keyboard and mouse to interface with the specialized device.

[Chris @ Feb 1st 2007 5:05PM]

this has prior art all over it. there's been a ton of concept devices that do almost exactly this.

[alinus @ Mar 2nd 2007 7:06PM]

A detail..., but there is a patent filed in 2000 by a company named SmartFon...they are just 7 years late.
http://www.smartfon.com/datasheets/cellstation.php

[Jon Shipman @ Feb 1st 2007 7:10PM]

I personally can't wait for this. This would be awesome for Cell Phones to become the new computer. Laptops have already replaced desktops in many situations. Once cell phones can get as fast as maybe a pentium 3, we're bound to see more of this taking off (I for one would probably make it my standard machine)

[clicclic @ Feb 2nd 2007 9:21AM]

The Tandy Model 100 is finally back!

[phoneking @ Feb 13th 2007 12:01PM]

The Phone Labs Dock-N-Talk has already been on the market for over 3 years and connects to over 1100 cell phones. They also have the Enterprise Telephone which does all that now. I am not sure what the "invention" is here.