Earlier this year ZTE announced plans to launch a crowdsourced smartphone. Now the Chinese phone maker is kicking things off by launching Project CSX, a community forum where potential customers will be able to share their ideas for a smartphone that ZTE hopes to bring to market in 2017.
Anyone can join the community by visiting community.zteusa.com to sign up.
ZTE says it Projcet CSX is “a new method for developing products that engages directly with consumers at every step of the development process.”
Uses will be invited to submit ideas and then vote on their favorites. ZTE will offer “small cash prizes” for popular ideas, along with a chance to win a trip to CES 2017 in Las Vegas.
It’ll be interesting to see what a designed-by-committee ZTE smartphone looks like. Will it be a behemoth with a massive battery, ultra-high-resolution display, and monster camera? Will users try to use their leverage to convince ZTE to create a niche product like a phone with dedicated gaming controls or an ePaper display? Or do people just want a cheap phone with stock Android software?