Nokia GEM concept phone is touchscreen all over

Nokia, you crazy bunch. You've only just unveiled your first Windows Phone device, but you're still looking far into the future and dreaming up insane concept phones. The Nokia GEM is the latest gift from the Nokia Research Center, a bonkers blower that has touchscreens for every surface.

Because the hypothetical mobile has no boring plastic or metal outside bits, it's totally customisable.

In a slightly off-putting animated video that features a woman using her GEM phone to flirt with a guy in a café (we've embedded it below), you can see the aforementioned lady taking a photo of the wallpaper, and then wrapping the photo all the way around her mobile to change its looks.

You could have the whole phone display a map, or make one side display a zoomed-out view of your vicinity, and the other a close-up view of where you're headed. Nifty.

"There is no default appearance," enthuses senior design manager Jarkko Saunamäki on Nokia's blog. "If you play a lot of games it will usually resemble a games pad."

You could also have adverts displayed on the back of the mobile, which sounds like a horrible idea for phone owners, but will excite advertising bods.

Interestingly, the GEM is shaped like an old-school Nokia blower rather than sporting the modern rectangular look you'll find on most smart phones.

This isn't Nokia's first crazy concept phone. At Nokia World it showed off Nokia Kinetic, a bendy phone you control by twisting, and we won't die happy unless we go with the Nokia Morph self-cleaning solar-powered smart phone in our pockets.

Nokia needs to survive the next year, and get us excited about Windows Phone, so it stays alive long enough to start manufacturing some of these crazy inventions.

Would you use a phone that was all-touchscreen? Or is the idea madder than a bag of bulldogs? Etch your 24-carat insight down in the comments, or on our semi-precious Facebook wall.