Sometimes, simplicity really does win. And with this $100 smart phone named The Light Phone, it really does. Developed by Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang at Google’s 30 Weeks program in New York City, this phone has one purpose: call other people.
Nicknamed the "Anti-Smartphone" it might be pretty basic, but that is what its developers intended. The charge lasts for 20 days, includes a place for a USB port to connect and, most importantly, makes calls. It also has a flashlight, which anyone who has been living in certain areas of the world (Lebanon, cough cough) could appreciate.
The phone is never meant to be replaced and, in some ways, can be seen as a rebellion to our uber-connected, consumer-focused world. Developer Hollier tells Tech Crunch that,
“This phone will likely never need to be replaced by a new model,” said Hollier. “This project is really about a conversation we want to start. Is where technology is going really the way we want in terms of living our day to day lives in the happiest sense? We are not against tech at all (clearly we joined an incubator and have a passion for this) but we think that maybe we need to put the human first in tech again and think about what kind of tech will make our lives better in the long term. I don’t think the Light Phone is the end all be all answer to this question but it’s our first step in starting the conversation and we have lots of ideas for going forward.”