I’ve loved looking through this project and seeing the development - great stuff.
A few comments on the recent post:
I like the idea of the knocked off corners on your ‘casket’ design. Great for larger screen devices - I struggle to reach the top corners of some of the larger screen devices when using one hand, which can be really annoying. The other way you could combat this is through making the UI accessible in the lower half of the screen for key ‘one-handed-use’ features. Out of interest, what display sizes are you considering? The trend seems to be for larger and larger displays, but is that what people actually want (especially as I guess this will be the one element of the product that wont be user swapable)?
I am not a personal fan of a kick-stand. Do people want a non-essential mechanical feature that may break and adds thickness?
The link of the volume control to the speaker is great, though I am thinking that this may be annoying (or pretty near impossible) to adjust when you are making a call (something that I am always doing).
Materials. Why cover the aluminium with an elastomer? If you want the visual effect of metal but a rubberised texture you can do that cheaply with IML but you shirk on quality and also the tactile cool feel which helps to tell the consumer that the metal is REAL. There is a reason that everyone loves the macbook pros - it’s not because they look like metal but because they ARE aluminium, and they flaunt it. That said, I think a tactile approach is right for the story that you have created behind Modai, and I think that the quilted back idea is going in the right direction… but not sure it is for the consumer you set out at the beginning of your project. Non-metals are also easier on your antennas too… unless you are doing an iPhone 4 approach… Maybe now is the time to go and and persuade a phone shop to let you get your hands on the latest product in the price-point you are aiming at to see what they are doing material wise, and also what they’re not.
Good stuf though. Can’t wait to see the next developments!