If you've never heard of the Light Phone, you're not alone. Not only because it's a bizarre invention, created for smartphone users who don't actually want a smartphone, but also because it's been in development limbo for some time now.
The Light Phone is a concept, introduced 18 months ago on Kickstarter. It's a no-features calls-only phone device, which you would use if you want to spend a day without any distractions.
The basic idea behind it is to eliminate constant notifications, messages and whatnot. You just need to forward all calls from your smartphone to your Light Phone and, voila, you won't get distracted by Facebook, but you won't miss an important call either.
Now, there's a tiny bit of a problem with that concept. Why would you pre-order such a thing for $100, instead of turning your mobile data off? It will basically do the same thing, right? Well, it appears that a lot of people disagree, as the Light Phone raised a bit over $400,000 on Kickstarter.
And despite failing to reach its goal, its creators promised to deliver it in the end, be it with some delay. The Light Phone was supposed to start shipping in June, then it was pushed to the end of August, and now its long overdue launch is supposed to happen in two weeks.
According to the latest press release by Light Phone creators, the first units will go out to their new owners on November 30, and will arrive to their destinations in December. The company will continue to produce and ship batches of the device “the following weeks”.
"We will continue to rollout batches of phones over the following weeks. The night (Black in colour) colourway of the phone will be shipping out of our factory the first or second week of January, we are in the process finalising the exact date," added the company.
Light Phone was launched at $100 (roughly Rs. 7,000) with the aim to be the opposite of a smartphone, and it forwards calls from your primary smartphone with the help of an app. The company at launch claimed that the Light Phone was designed to be used as little as possible. Light Phone can offer a battery life of up to three weeks with a single charge and it doesn't support Internet. The phone features a 2G Nano-SIM and allows calls. It sports a touch module, microphone, and Micro-USB port. The phone has no camera as well.
The company on its website has also acknowledged the delays in shipments. "We understand that we have long since missed our timeline goal, and we appreciate your understanding. We've learned so much from the process and will continue to improve in all possible ways. We took on the ambitious task of building the software in house with a small team in order to maintain ultimate control over the experience, however we regret not having methods for projecting accurate timelines," added the company.
