Much more attention has been paid to accessing the rapidly growing phone market than there has been to designing practical and creative phones that meet a specific and unique demands of those markets. Andre Minoli a designer has done something very interesting in that regard with the new PVOT concept. It is designed to run on rechargeable AA batteries. A hand crank lets you recharge the batteries as you go – 25 cranks gives you one minute of talk time. The hand crank also has other practical functions. It folds down to be the microphone for the phone and contains a dot matrix LCD. The PVOT also has an Eraser Shield keypad.

No word yet on whether this concept will ever make it into production, though it obviously will if it proves to be effective and profitable.