Mozilla thinks outside the box, launches open source Mozilla Phone project

It looks like things are about to get heavier than ever in the smartphone world as Mozilla begins work on designing and building what may be the world’s first crowd-sourced mobile handset. Working closely with Aza Ruskin of Mozilla Labs, Yanko Design’s Billy May has been tasked with heading the design aspect of the project and this is where things get interesting. Anyone familiar with YD knows that May certainly has an eye for design but that doesn’t mean he should go it alone, right? In true Mozilla fashion, the company will begin designing its first ever handset – dubbed Mozilla Phone for the time being – with help and guidance from anyone and everyone. May and company have launched a new blog dedicated to the project where concepts will be tossed about, loved, hated and hashed out until various design elements and concepts get enough love to find their way to the finished product. The first design, posed by May, is basically a BlackBerry with OLED-driven keys that make ModeShift look like a rotary phone. While the design is a throw away, the concept is awesome – a mobile handset with a keypad that will truly and completely morph and shape itself around the task at hand. No, this design will never see the light of day – at least not any time soon – but concepts and elements will certainly be drawn from it and applied to new designs as the project progresses. If you love Mozilla products as much as we do, we highly recommend hitting the read link and getting involved. Of course first you should hit the jump for a few more shots of the Optimus Berryus.

[Via Yanko Design]

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