A new idea for smartphones?

[jaime_lion]

So i have an idea, you know thouse hdmi sticks for tvs, what if you were able to have a smart phone and you could take that stick out of it and attach it to a monitor for productivity? Or if your screen breaks you just buy a new "shell" and insert the hdmi stick into it? Would this be able to work at all?

 

[DMGrier]

So i have an idea, you know thouse hdmi sticks for tvs, what if you were able to have a smart phone and you could take that stick out of it and attach it to a monitor for productivity? Or if your screen breaks you just buy a new "shell" and insert the hdmi stick into it? Would this be able to work at all?

A similar concept is being worked by Blackberry and Canonical, They are creating smart phones and tablet you will connect to a dock which will give you productivity on a screen with keyboard and mouse.

 

[voyagerfan99]

That's what the Motorola Atrix was...for productivity anyway

 

[Geoff]

I'm not familiar with HDMI sticks, do you mean HDMI cable? Many smartphones have HDMI outputs..

 

[strollin]

Those HDMI sticks are more often referred to as a mini-pc. They are essentially a complete PC on a stick that plugs into the HDMI port of a TV. They generally also have a USB port or Bluetooth (or both) for attaching a mouse/keyboard. Here's a link to an example: MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC. They are essentially the guts of a tablet with no built-in display.

I suppose it could be possible to make one that would plug into a phone shell so it could be used as a phone then unplugged from the phone and plugged into a TV to use there. I personally think it's much easier to plug the phone into a dock or just use an HDMI cable from the phone to the TV. The idea of making it easier to replace the screen sounds good at first but I believe the screen and phone part are a major cost of the phone to begin with so not sure how much you would save over just buying a new phone.

My phone has a micro HDMI port on it so I can plug it into a TV and using the built-in Bluetooth, I can connect a mouse and keyboard and I have done that "just to see that I could do it". When I do attach the phone to my TV thru HDMI I usually use the phone to play Netflix videos on the TV.

 

[jaime_lion]

do you think this idea is marketable? like should i try and get a hold of people to give them this idea?

 

[Geoff]

I really don't see it working, phones already have HDMI out so you can connect them to larger displays for productivity, and if the displays on phones were removable I'm sure it would add unnecessary bulk.