Development to Mass Production
Transition from Development to Mass Production
We recently visited the Foxconn facility in Yantai, China, located on the coast towards the north of the country. This is where the Light Phone is going to be produced. We did a small assembly of our same P1 prototypes of the last update to learn how to mass produce and assemble the Light Phone.
It is a significant milestone for us to setup the manufacturing site. It sounds simple but the process involves learning to set up assembly process flow, figure out how many stations and operators we need on the line, migrate testing equipment from R/D center to manufacturing site, determine the raw materials to order as there is a lead time for getting all of the parts, and to finalize how to rework defected parts.
We want to start a different relationship between us, our partners, operators on the line as well as our consumers. We are all humans. We want to do simple things like making sure everyone has and wears masks, which unfortunately isn’t always the case when some of the larger US electronics companies are working to aggressively cut all possible corners. This is the very start to how we want to impact and improve the quality of electronics manufacturing, but it will be a long process to continue to improve working conditions. We realize that as a backer you will be receiving your phone in June, however this is a story we are going to continue to tell as consumer awareness is essential to making any sort of serious change.
Finding the Perfect Glass
In our last update we mentioned our transition to a glass front for the Light Phone. We’ve been since exploring a variety of options and have found the perfect glass to use on the Light Phone. One reason we avoided glass was that we didn’t want the Light Phone to feel like “consumer electronics” or smartphones that we were used to. Our new glass is unlike anything currently on the market. It is matte and warm. It feels so smooth to the touch, has no glare or reflections and does not even show finger prints like most glass. We had to try and test many variations to find our perfect match. These are some photos from that journey that took place in Shanghai.
HAX Boost
In between traveling to Asia we were also temporarily based out of San Francisco for 45 days through February and March. In January we met with one of the HAX founders in Shenzhen and he invited us to be apart of their new accelerator program. HAX is the world’s leading hardware incubator. The goal was to learn about fulfillment, logistics and distribution. Being surrounded by other hardware companies facing the same struggles as us was also quite helpful because were able to learn from and help each other. The mentors of the program were very supportive, and will continue to give us great guidance in this crunch time that we are in. We are happy to be a part of the HAX family and appreciate their warm hospitality in bringing us to San Francisco for so long. It was great to meet so many new people in the technology world and to share our idea with our new friends. It is also an incredibly beautiful city to spend some time in.
