At CES earlier this year, ZTE claimed that they would release a Crowd Sourced smartphone, and they were not kidding, the company has now launched project CSX. People can now share their ideas with ZTE using the new Z-Community forum, where you will be able to submit your ideas. Dubbed “CSX” for now, however the final product will have another name. ZTE will also give out a cash prize if you have a winning or popular suggestion.
If you have a submission in mind, you can send your ideas by creating an account on the Z-Community forum, it must be something that is realistic. So the product can’t be something worth thousands of dollars worth of features and accessories. “The product must be affordable for the general population,” claims ZTE. Your submission must be unique, and ZTE has a way to make sure your submission isn’t stolen from someone else.
Senior vice president of technology, Jeff Yee, said that “the company will see this through,” as the investment for project CSX was confidential, the development of the device can cost from half a million to $5 million dollars.
ZTE will be the one to own property of the device, however the company also gives many benefits of contributing to this project, not only will you be contributing to a dream phone. ZTE says that people who participate will get early access to the product. The company is also giving away a chance to go to CES 2017 in Las Vegas.
The Chinese phone making company isn’t the first company to give people choice in what to bring to the market. There are other companies such as TCL in which they announced a Crowd Source Palm device. Mozilla also announced that their next logo will be user created in June. However, ZTE seems to have the users more involved with their product than TCL or Mozilla.
People are interested in what the Crowd Sourced phone will bring to the market in 2017, will it be a high-resolution display, a massive battery, or with dedicated gaming controls? Or with simply basic android functions and software? In the meantime, you should probably submit your idea right away before someone else snatches it from your hands.
