Light Phone: The Challenges of Vintage Innovation

Abstract

Light Phone is a New York-based cell phone company co-founded and led by Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang. Light Phone offers a premium phone based on vintage innovation that does not have any anxiety-inducing feeds such as social media. In 2020, one of its phone models, Light Phone II, was awarded Fast Company's most innovative design of the year award. However, Light Phone II's price was USD 350, and low- to mid-range smartphones were also available in the same price range with more advanced features. Nevertheless, the startup experienced success with its crowdfunding campaigns, implying that funders anticipated demand for the Light Phone. Light Phone co-founders were confident that they would not add social media, advertising, email, or news features to the phone under any circumstances. By 2022, traditional cell phone players such as Nokia and newer players like Google were also launching their version of minimalist phones. Are Hollier and Tang charging too much for a cell phone? How can they improve the retro innovation of Light Phone? What is the significance of crowdfunding in the initial boost of sales?

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