Nokia asks consumers to chose the design of their next smartphone

Mobile maker Nokia is putting consumers in the driver’s seat, asking them to decide on one of three designs for the company’s “ultimate concept phone.”

Nokia’s Design by Community is a project that started back in March 2010 when the company invited consumers to submit ideas and concepts for a new mobile phone.

More than 72,000 people voted for the submitted ideas and design suggestions and now Nokia is asking consumers to choose .

The three designs Nokia currently on the drawing board are the culmination of more than 72,000 consumer votes.

According to consumer votes, the ultimate mobile of the future wouldn’t be complete with out a 4-inch capacitive display, an open source operating system, unlimited multitasking, HDMI and 802.11 n/b/g WiFi connectivity, Dolby Surround Sound, an 8 megapixel camera with 4x optical zoom and video recording.

“Over the past month, the designers have worked with your suggestions for the ultimate concept phone. Now, it’s time for you to find out what it could look like, and vote on your favourite sketch” announced Nokia in a July 26 blog post.  

LG Mobile Phones runs a similar competition every year called Design the Future. The competition aims to challenge designers to step outside the lines of tradition mobile design and pushes them to re-conceptualize consumers' definition of a mobile phone.

After perusing the three images, consumers can vote for their favorite device on Nokia’s blog, http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/07/26/design-by-community-sketches-poll/. The poll will be open for the next week.

The winning sketch will be transformed into a 3D render and shown on the Nokia Conversations blog.

Nokia has no doubt been playing close attention to their consumers’ “ultimate mobile phone” suggestions. The company has a hard battle ahead if it wants to beat fierce competition from rivals such as Apple and handset makers using Google’s Android-powered operating system.