Motorola's "always-charged" mobile phone is (almost) here

Motorola has patented technology that will make it possible to recharge a mobile phone battery through solar cells embedded within the liquid crystal display.  According to Antone Gonsalves at Information Week, commercialization of this technology "would effectively eliminate the need to recharge a cellular phone's battery through a separate transformer that plugs into an electrical socket. The phone would always be charged."  When it finally hits the market (hopefully soon), the "always-charged phone" will remove the energy constraint suffered by far too many mobile phone users in off-grid rural areas of Africa.  The "economic magic" that mobile phones seem to be working for a growing number of rural users in Africa is about to get a whole lot bigger (see: Pius Sawa and Robert Jensen).