I get the feeling that the future of mobile phones may well be full virtual, with touch-screens featuring heavily as opposed to physical buttons. Of course, with no mechanical parts, the phone buttons won't wear out through use, and using a virtual screen means the underlying OS can provide a much wider range of interface controls, and could even be updated over time.

Hopefully this type of cell phone will become a reality sooner rather than later. With touch screens already available in mainstream devices (such as Compaq's PDAs and the popular Nintendo DS), and touch-screen technology already in use on the extremely popular Chocolate handset, I think it's only a matter of time before this type of phone becomes a reality.

Via textually and Engadget.