I’m not sure what this says about the state of industrial design for mobile devices, but two of the coolest phones I’ve seen lately are mere concepts that will likely never see the light of day. It’s too bad because Apple needs some competition when it comes to creating pocket size art that isn’t only technologically impressive, but beautiful to behold.

First up on the roster of imaginary phones is the HTC 1 designed by Andrew Kim. Outside the Google Nexus One, I can’t think of too many HTC-made phones that don’t look like they were designed by an engineer. This thing is sleek with it’s single hard button, dual cameras and minimal UI, and its base swivels to act as a stand for watching videos.

And just today a new Nokia concept was making the blog rounds. Designed by Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, the Nokia Kinetic is supposed to stand on end to notify the user of important info.

Acting as a notification might be a little far-fetched, but actually, the self-standing (sans notification feature) should be fairly easy to accomplish. Proper weighting in the bottom portion of the phone should make the Kinetic stand upright, and that thicker portion also acts as a great grip for taking photos (notice the shutter button), not to mention ample room for a battery. My only quibble here is the call and end buttons which are anachronistic thinking to me. Those could easily be replaced with context-sensitive soft buttons on the touch screen.

I’ve been to my fair share of auto shows, and concept cars are always something to look at. It’s time mobile device makers get in that mindset.

My favorite of these phones is the Nokia, but I hope we see plenty more concept phones and that handset makers start taking risks and turning these things into reality.