Samsung develops solar-powered touchscreen phone

Samsung has unveiled its Blue Earth cell phone, the first full-touchscreen cell phone to run on solar power. Although not much information is available at the moment, the company has said that the phone's simple design was meant to reflect that of a "flat and well rounded shiny pebble", and that the solar panel on the rear of the device generates enough energy to allow the Blue Earth user to make a call anytime, from anywhere.

The green aspects of this decidedly blue phone include its 5-star energy efficient charger, the use of recycled PCM plastic (from beverage bottles) for the phone's body, and packaging that is made completely from recycled paper.

The phone also sports a new eco-friendly user interface that allows the user to quickly enter "eco-mode" to adjust Bluetooth and screen brightness and backlight duration to limit power requirements.

Additionally, the Blue Earth also sports a pedometer that will not only show how much the user saves the planet in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by walking instead of driving, but it will even translate that figure into the number of trees saved.

"Samsung's 'The Blue Earth Dream' demonstrates our small but meaningful commitments for the future and our environment," said J K Shin, Head of Mobile Communication at Samsung. "We are committed to achieving the highest eco-status with our customers and business partners by providing the best eco-products and promoting eco-activities."

Blue Earth is the latest in a series of eco-friendly products. Samsung previously introduced a biodegradable phone made from corn. Sony Ericsson announced a program to research green technologies using bio-plastic housings and recycled plastic keypads.

Last month T-Mobile released the Motorola Renew, a similar eco-friendly mobile phone also made of recycled water bottles.

So far Samsung has not released any pricing or market availability information for the Blue Earth, but the product is expected to be the centre of attention in Barcelona next week at the Mobile World Congress show.