The Chinese phone maker, ZTE has formally announced Project CSX to crowdsourced ideas for a new smartphone that it plans to launch in 2017. At CES earlier this year, ZTE first announced the plan to release a Crowd Sourced smartphone.
The company will leverage its new online ‘Z-Community’ that will serve as the platform for ideation and feedback throughout the entire development process. Users can submit their ideas through the platform and can also up-vote other ideas.
Project CSX is a new method for developing products that engages directly with consumers at every step of the development process, from conception to what is finally delivered to consumers. The project will be broken into two key development stages where users can submit and vote for their favorite ideas.
Submissions are held to three rules: it must be a mobile product, the technology must be realistically possible by 2017, and the final product must be affordable for the general population. Winning ideas and popular submissions will be awarded with small cash prizes throughout the process and the chance to win a trip to the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas.
Lixin Cheng, chairman and CEO of ZTE USA
It’s a bold approach for the industry that demonstrates how ZTE keeps consumers at the heart of everything we imagine, design and deliver. Project CSX is taking our core value to the next level.
Jeff Yee, Vice President of Technology Planning and Partnerships at ZTE USA
ZTE is an end-to-end telecommunications company and has the resources to develop all types of devices, not just smartphones. Maybe there are other ways we could be connecting that we have never imagined. We are excited to find out.
