Nokia puts hive mind to work on Best Phone Ever

Nokia's "Designed by Community" project is intended to find out what a mobile phone feature set should be, but even the Finns aren't promising to build it.

The site, which is part of Nokia Conversations, offers visitors the opportunity to vote on various aspects of the "perfect" handset with user interface elements being this week's topic. Each week a different aspect of handset design goes to the vote, with the final design being created - as a concept rendering at least.

Once the display and interface have been settled this week the vote moves on to the size and shape, then materials followed by OS (which Nokia limits to Symbian or MeeGo - a question which most of Nokia must be asking right now). That takes us up to 12 April, when visitors can vote on connectivity options (including wireless charging), then the camera and finally Nokia is promising that some weird enhancement options will be put to the vote.

Nokia does appear to be responding to comments posted, widening the options in response to one and trying to deal with the inevitable flood of "xxx is the best handset ever, you should make one like that". But the idea here is to let everyone tell Nokia what the ideal handset should look like.

The result will likely be a complete mess - as most things designed by committee tend to be - but the process might generate some interesting discussion and we're already looking forward to seeing the final render, if only to see just what the hive mind can come up with. ®