The Boy Genius comes through again with the discovery of a patent filed by Apple right before January’s Macworld where the iPhone was first introduced to the world, showing a smaller double-sided device.

One side has a touch screen with a soft dial pad suggesting that the device will offer phone functionalities, while the other side is only for display purposes.  The patent describes this as a way to keep smudges off the display while using multi-touch instead of a stylus on the back.

This design highly resembles Samsung’s dual-sided Upstage phone.  Check out my coverage of the Upstage on SlashGear if you haven’t seen it yet.

It’s hard to say whether this is a good solution since no one really knows whether it will be easier to control the iPod if you keep having to flip the device over and/or reach around back.  I think it’s a cool idea if it ever comes life.  Perhaps what we’re looking at here is the second generation of the iPhone, iPhone nano or even a future dual-sided multi-touch widescreen iPod?

Back-Side Interface for Hand-Held Devices  [Via The Boy Genius Report]