Apple's iPhone Gets A Direct Reference

MYiPhone are reporting on the latest Apple patent, which directly refers to a compact music player and cellphone encased in radio wave-friendly zirconia.  The sketches that accompany the August 6th submission point to a design similar to this concept:

I don't want to be a rubbishy old misery-guts, but I have to say that I'm not all that impressed with this design.  It just doesn't seem interesting; a slide-up iPod front?  Perhaps I've seen too many mock-ups but it's bland.  And I'm still not convinced that the iPod interface will be in any way benefited by having to accommodate all the options a cellphone needs to have. 

Hopefully I'll be wrong, and it'll be a must-have drool inspiring piece of kit.  I really do want to see the cellphone world shaken up, and perhaps Apple are the people to do it.  It just depends on how well the UI designers blend the two primary functions; I can say with some certainty that they'll probably not be asking the Motorola ROKR team for advice.

Apple iPhone Patent [via MYiPhone]