LG announces future phone design contest winners

LG ELECTRONICS has announced the winners of its second annual Design the Future Competition.

The design competition challenged entrants to submit concepts to define the future of personal mobile communications. More than 800 participants submitted entries to compete for $80,000 in prizes.

The company awarded the first place prize of $20,000 (£12,127 or €14,230) to Emily Albinski of Wading River, New York. LG also awarded $10,000 to the second place winner and $5,000 to the third place winner, with 40 honorable mentions receiving $1,000 plus an LG handset.

Ms Albinski, a full-time professional freelance designer, created a phone design concept she called CC based on the theme of connectivity. It depicted a modular 'core' phone that can be inserted into a touchscreen or netbook shell to provide nearly seamless connectivity along with flexibility to adapt to users' needs.

In a statement, LG said, "Many of the design concepts submitted demonstrated the desire to stay connected and multi-task in a wearable option."

One honorable mention design called Morph was a touch screen phone with a flexible display that can be bent and worn around the wrist.

Another notable honorable mention concept named HiFi was a touch screen phone that can be expanded into a hands-free wearable headphone for listening to music and making calls. µ