Motorola Concept - Femtocell and VoIP Phone Embedded in a Digital Picture Frame

Written on Sep 25, 2008 by Brian and filed under News

Motorola has loaded a new video to YouTube that shows off a digital picture frame concept they’re working on that includes a femtocell and voice over IP phone.

A femtocell essentially acts as a relay for cell phone networks using your Internet connection. Motorola thinks the inconspicuous digital picture frame is a great place to hide such a piece of equipment, while also turning your frame into a soft phone; complete with speaker, video camera and Bluetooth headset connection.

The idea makes a lot of sense, why toss another device onto a crowded workspace. Instead, leverage the somewhat ubiquitous digital picture frame and give it more functionality. While I’m definitely sold on the idea of disguising the femtocell in a digital frame, I’m not sure many will use a frame as a VoIP phone, especially since the PC already does that quite well and in the home, a land line or cell phone are more convenient for most.

Of course at this stage the idea is largely conceptual and femtocells are far from widespread adoption. Even though, it’s hard to complain about such an innovation in a space where differentiation is uncommon.