Ordering Your Own Customised Mobile Phones

A company says that it will start to offer highly customised mobile phones to consumers - emulating the sales model pioneered by Dell Computers in the 1990s where customers ordered a computer which was then individually built to their specifications. The company, zzzPhone says that its initial base model resembles the Nokia N95 in performance, and offers customers the ability to customize everything from the color of the case to the configuration of hardware and even the ability to pre-install special software, music, and ringtones onto the phone before they mail it to the customer.

Starting at US$149, with standard features such as a touchscreen, dual SIM card slots, a 3 megapixel camera, and integrated an MP3/MP4 player, these models can be upgraded with GPS navigational systems, stereo speakers, a 7 megapixel camera, up to 4 GB of memory, and more.

zzzPhone says that it is an American company with assembly plants in Shenzhen, the heart of China's mobile phone supply chain. According to their website, the three 'z's in "zzzPhone" represent the Chinese characters for 'personal', 'exclusive', and 'expert'.

A possible worry is that their website only offers a 30 day warranty - far less than the minimum of 12 months offered by bigger brand handset vendors, and the handset has to be sent back to China and not to a US based office.

On the web: zzzPhone

Posted to the site on 5th February 2008