The New Scientist has been discussing some patents on the way for both Nokia and Motorola in the way of solar powered cell phones.

I'm not sure about this one. Other companies have tried and failed here. But Motorola intends to use the solar cell as both the LCD display and the energy source for the cell phone.

Well, if this is a hit, it will certainly take the aggravation out of losing battery power just when you need to make that critical phone call. And you can also eliminate all of the other hardware that comes with your phone's battery. I see some potential cost savings here, but it sounds like this one needs some tweaking.