Patent ID: 7440770

Claim:
A portable telephone apparatus comprising: a keypad for entering telephone numbers; a display for displaying entered telephone numbers; an input device having input sections for inputting coordinate information to the portable telephone apparatus to control a position of a cursor on the display, the coordinate information varying depending on a movement of the input device on a flat surface; a coupling mechanism for detachably coupling the input device to a handset of the portable telephone apparatus, said input device being removable from said handset for operation thereof to control the position of said cursor; and a detector to detect whether or not the input device is coupled to said handset, said input device operative to control a position of a cursor when said detector detects that said input device is not coupled to said handset, wherein the portable telephone apparatus controls the input device in response to the detector so that the input device functions only as said keypad of the portable telephone apparatus and so that input from the input sections for controlling the position of the cursor on the display is ignored when the input device is coupled to the handset of the portable telephone apparatus by the coupling mechanism and functions as a pointing device when the input device is not coupled to the handset of the portable telephone apparatus.