Would it be possible to build a computer into a phone? Yes, it's quite possible, and I'd say it's already been done for many years now, depending upon your definition and requirements of a "computer." Today's cellphones definitely have a lot of processing power to handle a lot of capabilities.

One only needs to look at many devices, such as smartphones/pdas, iphones, htcs, etc. to see this.

Of course, it depends upon what you expect or want from your system as far as processing power and capabilities go, and as stated in other responses.. cost can be an issue too. Another key issue is power consumption. Hardware drivers can also be a significant barrier to adapting 3rd party devices; a lot of hardware is put out with only proprietary drivers for MS Windows of one flavor or another which is not the best OS for most low-power portable devices, and getting specs to write your own driver, or code to existing drivers can be difficult if not impossible.

You may want to look up various projects and concepts such as "Wearable Computers" and "ubiquitous computing".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_computing

Of course, your question revolves around the ability to just plug-in your phone to a home non-portable 'base station'. With such a device, this would be at least a bit easier. If the designer of the phone and the designer of the base station was the same company, it would be a no-brainer.

One of the big things that a lot of small/portable device manufacturers don't do is they tend not to enable the HOST features of the USB chipset, or don't include chips with them at all. Most of the time, PDAs, smartphones, and other similar devices only allow you to use external devices such as portable keyboards. Many portable devices already have mini or micro USB ports.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

Of course many phones, pdas, and the like have significant ability to add significant amounts of storage fairly cheaply or add components with various flash memory slots (SD, mini & micro SD, CF, SDIO, etc.)

With that in mind, I think a key desire you might be having in relation to this, is the ability to have your data with you always accessible, and integration of your computing environment.. use the phone's screen when you're out for processing, and net access, and when you get home simply plug it into your desktop computing components for integration with your computing devices. This is quite possible with today's technology, even if a simple pre-existing solution isn't currently available on the market.

As far as portable computing smaller than a laptop or netbook, many people have taken to rolling their own solutions, such as adapting and adding to rather popular platforms such as the nokia internet tablets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Internet_Tablet

There are semi-battery powered USB hubs like the CyberPower 420MP
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberpower-CP-H420MP-USB-Hub-Battery-Powered/dp/B0002UQALQ

There are many different types of USB and other portable devices such as: usb ethernet adapters http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=589 , usb modems http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Data-Modem-V-92-Kflex56/dp/B00008AWL0 , and usb DSL mini-modems. http://www.motorola.com/Business/XC-EN/Product+Lines/Netopia/Netopia_3300_Series_ADSL2_USBMiniModem_Loc%253AXU-EN%252CXC-EN%252CXM-EN%252CXE-EN%252CXN-EN%252CPK-EN%252CXF-EN As already stated, the question is really still one of whether a device has the power (both energy, and processing power), as well as the software drivers to utilize and drive such devices.
Source(s):
years of computing research and knowledge..

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