Portable telephones are generally well-known in the art. Portable telephones includes radiotelephones, such as cellular radiotelephones, cordless radiotelephones and personal communicators. Portable telephones traditionally communicate with a remote base station to provide wireless communications for a user. Portable telephones have become a widely accepted form of wireless communications in the cordless and cellular radiotelephone markets and are rapidly finding applications in new types of communications systems such as personal communications systems (PCS).
Because of such wide acceptance, differentiating the appearance of individual portable telephones has become an important requirement for the customer, the manufacturer, and the distributor of the portable telephone. Customers desire a unique appearance to satisfy their personal tastes and preferences. Manufacturers desire a unique appearance to provide a variety of telephone appearances to their customers, and to provide a unique appearance for the manufacturer's own product. Distributors and retailers desire a unique appearance to differentiate themselves and their products in the marketplace and to promote their name brand. The desires of manufacturers, sellers and users to have a unique-looking portable telephone are eventually communicated to the manufacturer so that the particular unique-looking portable telephone can be produced.
A portable telephone is conventionally produced by assembling radiotelephone circuitry, including transceiver circuitry and user interface circuitry, within a housing. The user interface circuitry includes a display, a keypad, an earpiece and a microphone. The housing traditionally includes a rear housing, having a standard molded form, mated to a front housing having a different standard molded form. The front housing is adapted to provide a particular appearance by means of its molded contour, texture or color. Typically, the user interface elements are mounted inside the front housing and electrically connected to transceiver circuitry mounted in the back housing. The display and keypad may also each have a particular appearance. A particular front housing, a particular display and a particular keypad are selected by the manufacturer to give the portable radiotelephone an overall particular appearance.
A disadvantage of conventionally producing the particular unique appearances of portable radiotelephones is that the unique appearance of a portable radiotelephone must be known by the manufacturer before the portable telephone is manufactured. At selected locations throughout a production line, the appropriate front housing, keypad and display, etc. are appropriately assembled to produce the appropriate particular appearance for the portable telephone.
While this manufacturing technique was acceptable in the past when relatively few particular appearances for portable telephones were needed, the large growth in the telecommunications industry has created a demand for a very large number of unique appearances for portable telephones. Today, a typical manufacturer may be required to track literally hundreds of portable telephone models, each having a unique look. The task of managing such a demand has prompted the need for a new way to manufacture portable telephones to achieve a variety of unique appearances that meet the market demand without burdening the production flow.
Furthermore, convention-ally-produced portable telephones do not permit the user of the portable telephone to alter the appearance of the portable telephone once manufactured or purchased. Aftermarket companies have tried to meet the customer's need for the customer's own unique look by providing accessories, such as cases for holding portable telephones. However, these cases are clumsy, add weight, and have a limited effect on the appearance of the portable telephone.
One known portable telephone design attempts to provide an easily changeable faceplate. This design permits the user to alter the appearance of the portable telephone after manufacture or purchase. The portable telephone includes a removable, snap-fit faceplate and a housing. The snap-fit faceplate includes a lip and tabs which fit into slots on the housing. The manufacturer or user may alter the appearance of this portable telephone by unsnapping the snap-fit faceplate from the housing and substituting another snap-fit faceplate sized to fit the housing.
The success of such a portable phone with a snap-fit faceplate has been limited by the inherently insecure nature of the attachment of the snap-fit faceplate to the housing. The snap-fit faceplate may come loose when the portable telephone is subjected to jarring, such as when the portable telephone is dropped. Moreover, attempts to make the attachment of the snap-fit faceplate more solid by making the snap-fit connection more secure defeat the goal of an easily changeable faceplate.
Other known methods of attaching a faceplate to a portable telephone housing include using one or more screws as well as more permanent methods such as adhesive. None of these known methods has successfully permitted the user to readily alter the appearance of the portable telephone after manufacture or purchase.
Accordingly, there is a need for a portable telephone adapted to accommodate a plurality of distinctive telephone appearances that overcomes the disadvantage of conventionally produced portable telephones.