Sony Ericsson filed lately several patent applications, showing clear intentions to innovate its future line-up of mobile phones with different technologies, from touchscreen to motion control. A new patent application surfaced recently, this time for a phone with a detachable display.

Called "Detachable Housings for a Wireless Communication Device", the patent application unveils a handset in a clamshell form factor that has the ability to detach its display and stay connected with it via Bluetooth. Why would a mobile user want to do that? I'm not sure, but this Sony Ericsson concept shows the clamshell's screen can also be detached and then put back, with its other side up, which means you can make your external display become internal and vice versa. Again, why would we want to do that? Again, I'm not sure (especially since the external display, being much smaller, has a limited functionality). Maybe for the fun of it, or for simply changing the way the phone looks like.

The concept might be useful if the phone would come with two separate displays, with separate functionalities, that can be swapped. One display could have photo camera and GPS functionality and the other one could be for calling and other phone-related tasks. When a display is in the handset, the other one can be held in your pocket or even left home, depending on what you intend to use the phone for. Anyway, the patent application doesn't speak about two displays, but about just one that can change its position. So for the moment the whole thing is a bit vague, first because its practical aspects can hardly be seen.

However, for those who want to read endless lines starting with "The", the full patent application from Sony Ericsson can be found at this address.