Motorola is surely no stranger to touchscreen technology, despite the fact that most of its touch-enabled mobile devices are being commercialized in China only. Still, the once-glorious Moto is said to be preparing several new touchscreen handsets to conquer the US and European markets, but no official details about them have been made public so far. Of course, there are lots of rumors, and even a leaked image with what is supposed to be the Motorola Alexander - a Windows Mobile smartphone with advanced multimedia capabilities.

However, until the American company decides to unveil its future masterpieces (and hopefully they will be worthy of this big word), a new Moto touchscreen concept phone has surfaced, offering us a glimpse into what the manufacturer might (some day) build. Named Motorola Sparrow, designed by Rinat Aruh, and first spotted on Yanko Design, the device looks nice but unusual at the same time, because of its "rounded square" shape.

The Sparrow is said to be a multi-functional handset: mobile point-of-service device, credit card reader, scanner, RFID (Radio-frequency identification) reader and, of course, a mobile phone.

Apparently, the Sparrow would have a simple touch-enabled User Interface, with four main virtual keys, each corresponding to a different ability of the handset: "Phone," "Product info," "Customer history," and "Check out". Moreover, the back of the handset should also be touch-sensitive, allowing users to better control the embedded features.

Unfortunately, Motorola Sparrow's designer did not let out too much info about the phone-related features of the device. Even so, from the images made available, we can say that the Sparrow would make an intriguing handset, if ever build in reality. Moto could even make the Sparrow a phone-only, setting aside the MPOS and RFID capabilities. If that ever happened, fashion-conscious mobile users would surely check the handset out. And, provided that its touchscreen interface and all of its features worked at least decently, the Sparrow could be a new Motorola hit.

I'm not sure why the designer chose to name the creation "Motorola Sparrow," but I think that this would be a really good name for a music-centered handset. Or maybe for a device that Jack Sparrow would love (you know, the character from Pirates of the Caribbean).

Anyway, even if the Sparrow never makes it to the real world, Motorola can still learn something from its design. A handset so small and cool might be the next best thing for the touchscreen mobile market.