Mimicking the PSP’s UMD format, the Movie Phone from Indian firm Spice Corp Ltd. plays movies from tiny optical discs that you slide in the back.

Not much bigger than an SD card, the 1GB Vmedia discs are far smaller than UMDs, and can hold a three-and-a-half hour Bollywood epic. And you won’t see them anywhere else – they’ve been made specifically for use with this mobile, just like Sony’s UMDs were exclusively for the PSP.

Makers Vmedia say quality is 20% higher than a DVD, and they’ll sell for the same price and come out on the same day. We saw one blown up on a 50-inch plasma, and it looked pretty darned impressive.

Talks are being held with top Hollywood studios to bring Western flicks to the format. Which of course will decide its success when it launches in Europe at the end of the year. Those lucky Indians will get it in the summer.

Also from the same company is a phone for the blind, with braile on the keys and which speaks the numbers as you dial them. Looks like Japan and Europe are getting some serious competition when it comes to mobile innovation.