
The $12 “Gongkai” Phone (2013) - megablast
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107
======
sah88
There is a link in the comments to a 7 dollar phone that looks way more
polished. Crazy really, a fast food meal will cost you more than that here in
Canada.

[http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone](http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone)

~~~
userbinator
Mediatek (MTK) was for many years the SoC of choice for ultra-cheap feature
phones like these, but they seem to have gone up the scale (their Android
platforms are good value) while others like RDA have filled in the ultra-low-
end.

I think one of the ways in which they were able to undercut MTK was to use a
different CPU core - the $2 MT6250 in bunnie's phone still uses an ARM core,
which means licensing fees to ARM are some part of the cost (I'm not aware of
any "pirated" ARM cores) - and in such a cheap SoC, could be a significant
fraction. The RDA8851 is "MIPS-compatible" so they aren't paying ARM and
likely the other IP on it was either designed by RDA or others in China.

~~~
minthd
With such capabilities it's pretty weird that such companies aren't fiercely
competing in the mcu market(at least in the high end of it). They could have
made a killer mcu for very cheap.

------
pronoiac
Ah, this dates from a year or two ago. Here's a previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5703946](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5703946)

------
Animats
It's been possible to get a reasonably good Android tablet for $30 in Shentzen
for two years or so. Now those are down to $20 in quantity.

[http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-shenzhen-
Wintouch...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-shenzhen-Wintouch-
Digital-Dual-Core_1931301955.html)

------
drivingmenuts
So, what are the rules of gongkai? That might have been useful to include in
the article.

~~~
Nexxxeh
First and second are presumably "Don't talk about gongkai."

------
codinghorror
If any article needed a date in the title this one does. Seen it on HN a few
times now.

(can HN have code that checks for dupe links from the past and forces the year
in the title, if so, just as an additional signal to long term readers? That'd
help a lot.)

~~~
vegedor
Is reliably finding the date a trivial task to you? Date of submission could
also be misleading.

------
Aqwis
Is this really that extraordinary? I can buy a Samsung GT-E1200 candybar phone
for $15 in Norway. Presumably similarly priced phones are sold in the US.
That's a considerably nicer phone too, with a bigger screen and more features.

~~~
mseebach
At $15, it's most likely subsidised (Tesco and ASDA carry them subsidised at
exactly that pricepoint in the UK). Unlocked, it's twice that.

Still cheap, but 3X more expensive than the phone featured in the article. 3X
is a lot.

~~~
Aqwis
No, I can buy the phone without any contract/subsidy for that price. Indeed, I
don't think subsidised candybar-style phones are even sold here anymore. But
even if it's $30 in the UK, are there really no (unlocked) phones available at
a lower price-point?

~~~
mseebach
Fair enough. It's plausible - I have a few of the Samsung (unlocked) at
roughly that price point, but they were cheap enough that I didn't bother to
shop around.

------
guylhem
I used that exact phone (well, it had a different plastic shell was called
"cardphone" \- no bluetooth) for a year as my main cell phone.

It worked very well, had about 3 days of battery time (given my uses). The
best part is that I never forgot it, given how small it was - always there
with my credit cards

Unfortunately, the headphone died after a bad fall (I could still use on
speakermode).

I'll be very happy to buy a new one, especially it has bluetooth now. (if
there's someone from China I would be interested, it usually sells for 3 times
as much on ebay :-)

~~~
rsync
I have been using a Motorola "FONE" (or F3, or "MOTO FONE") for the last 2
years. It does _nothing_ but make calls. Well, I guess it has an alarm and it
also has redial.

It also has an e-ink screen, which is mildly interesting.

It was designed and built for emerging markets that might not have reliable
electricity, hence the e-ink and other battery saving measures.

I love it. Very small. The only problem is that it is 2G and I have some
trouble in some places. I suspect that 2G service is not well maintained or
observed these days ...

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone)

~~~
zemvpferreira
Where did you find one? That was my phone through college and one of my
favorite pieces of design ever. the screen was phenomenal and the interaction
fairly unique.

------
jarcane
This reminds me of the magazine phone. [http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/ew-has-
smartphone-inside/](http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/ew-has-smartphone-inside/)

------
wyager
How hard is it to re-program these? If you needed a device with GSM and just a
few GPIO, this makes more sense than an Arduino + GSM shield. In fact, the
entire phone is cheaper than a GSM shield. It would even make sense to use
this phone solely fore GSM comms and connect to some other µc over the UART.

------
ww520
"Gongkai" seems to be between public domain and open source. Interesting to
see a sharing ecosystem developing without a firm legal framework.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Actually its more a collective exploitation of third party IP. The factories
that build the chips, the people that put together the boards, the places that
build the screens etc. They have generally at one time or another been
contracted to or licensed to produce some product, which they do, and then
well they make more for their friends without so much cost.

In a fascinating sort of way it works like folks who burn copies of DVDs and
sell them out of their trunk except these folks have access to much more
sophisticated manufacturing gear. By and large its "harmless" in that none of
the people buying a $12 phone are going to buy a $60 legitimate phone, even if
that was the only phone available. So its hard to argue to economic loss as
well.

Very little of the stuff built into these phones and gizmos though seems like
the _original creator_ was doing it to give away.

~~~
api
A good chunk of open source is reimplementated copies of closed source.

~~~
lotyrin
But not by people who just left the developer teams of those products and can
take advantage of IP in a similar way (at least in the majority of cases)

------
chdir
Under $12, with camera, bluetooth, FM, radio, flashlight and dual SIM

[http://www.ebay.in/itm/Q-Tel-Cheapest-GSM-Dual-Sim-Mobile-
Ph...](http://www.ebay.in/itm/Q-Tel-Cheapest-GSM-Dual-Sim-Mobile-Phone-With-
Camera-BT-FM-Radio-Torch-/171553046831)

There are more available in B&M stores for $6-$7 with a reasonable lifespan
(easily greater than 1-2 years)

------
ja27
It's pretty amazing to me that there are pretty regular sales of of crappy no-
contract Android 4.X phones for under $10. Here's a current one:

[http://www.target.com/p/brightspot-zte-zinger-prepaid-
cell-p...](http://www.target.com/p/brightspot-zte-zinger-prepaid-cell-phone-
black/-/A-16599233)

~~~
dangrossman
I outfitted my house with 5 wifi cameras by buying some prepaid Android phones
like that from Boost Mobile on clearance. Why pay $150 per Dropcam or some
other dedicated camera when you can get one with an attached computer for a
couple bucks?

~~~
ja27
Yeah I've run IP Webcam on crappy Huawei Glory phones that were cleared out at
$7.99. Works okay with Zoneminder too. You can use ScreenFilter to bring the
screen brightness down to nearly zero.

~~~
dangrossman
IP Webcam runs as a background app for me. I don't have the screens on at all.

------
mey
Title should be updated to (2013)

------
sturmeh
That looks like a Sansa Clip+ display, hmm.

~~~
Gracana
Oh you're right, it does. I never knew they were used in that device, but I do
have a couple of those displays.. If you search ebay for "oled display,"
you'll see them listed over and over in different variations for $5-10.

------
mintplant
Does anyone have a link to this particular phone on the Digital Mall site?
I've been looking for a low-cost, 'disposable' MP3 player for a while now.

~~~
Istof
you can get an mp3 player for less then $2 if you supply the SD card and
headphone... try aliexpress for example:
[http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wholesale-Retail-Sport-
MINI-C...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wholesale-Retail-Sport-MINI-Clip-
MP3-Player-with-Micro-TF-SD-card-Slot-with-mini-MP3/2032969720.html)

------
krisgenre
Here's a $10 phone sold in India -
[http://www.flipkart.com/k-1300-pk/p/itmefh68fqtqcnzq?pid=MOB...](http://www.flipkart.com/k-1300-pk/p/itmefh68fqtqcnzq?pid=MOBEFH68DZ7GPAT5&srno=b_1&ref=5a7afe37-c98a-46a8-b6d0-59c7b422f682)

------
GuiA
Related: David Mellis (one of the Arduino founders) has an Arduino-based phone
project as part of his Phd research:
[http://web.media.mit.edu/~mellis/cellphone/index.html](http://web.media.mit.edu/~mellis/cellphone/index.html)

~~~
userbinator
_about $200 total_

Shows just how extreme the economies of scale and integration can be - putting
together a working system based on loosely-coupled off-the-shelf parts (it
looks like his effort was mostly only expended on the "gluing" of these parts
together) can cost more than 20x that of the tightly-integrated, mass-produced
product with equivalent functionality. The speaker, battery, and display for
the Arduinophone individually cost more than one of these entire cheap phones.

...and $200 is more than enough to buy an unlocked, contract-free, Android
smartphone with several times the processing power and functionality.

------
moe
I got one of these (or a very similar model), they are sold as "Cardphones" on
eBay.

Really nice backup device, battery lasts weeks, reception and call quality is
surprisingly good.

I only wish there was an easy way to sync the phonebook to Android/iOS because
the interface is really, well, basic.

------
stormpat
For a real low budget phone you could get an Nokia 105 for 18 dollars.

------
frozenport
3rd world folks want Internet, and many will ration food spending to buy a
phone capable of such.

------
millionairegonk
WHY MILLIONAIRE BUY Gonkai Phone?

1.) Complete failure of security in 'convergence' to the smartphone. too much
centralization and the firmware has plenty of rootkits.

2.) Most USA citizens own their home and Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans turn
their major assets into WEALTH DESTRUCTION.

3.) Yes, I carry around a 'personal book' on lightweight paper that could
easly be 'obliterated.' WHY CARRY an apple phone, flash it and the ARMED
ROBBERS and 'predators' follow you?

4.) Sure I am a bit extreme. Sure I made money the HARD WAY. paid my way thru
school by part time work, scholarship, etc.

5.) Hey MILLIONAIRE - I PAY CASH to local merchants/friends/ room-mates. Plug
in LIVE CD - Gentoo preferred or openbsd and THE CLOUD TAKES CARE OF YOU.

6.) OK. so I wear the tux and the bicycle is 50US$ used. upgarde it 100 $US.
Paying for an expensive car and parking it in New York City?

7.) RUSSIAN JOKE - ancient - So, the scientist wears the supercomputer the
size of a wristwatch. on wrist. BUT the catch is he has to carry a suitcase
full of heavy lead batteries.

8.) OH, ahhhh. some of the equipment is hammmraddddio using the newwwer open
source software. So, the 911 service CRASHED IN Seattle, WA? AGAIN?? AGAIN??
not a problem for the

MILLIONAIRES....

riding a bicycle. making a chinese food delivery and traveling by private
plane arrangements means the SILLY VALLY Vulture Capital guys have a harder
time to track MR. Mobius of Templeton or Mr. gongkai.

LOL, suckers enjoy your aaaple dumb phone.

PS. moving most of the 'infrastructure to world diversified VPS. even
CLOUDFLARE is a single point of failure.

~~~
rustyfe
I honestly wonder if you are a bot or someone struggling with translation. Of
course if you're a bot, I don't know what your purpose is, there aren't any
links in the post, it's just conversation. If this came up and I was judging a
Turing Test, I really don't know if I'd pick correctly. At some points you
seem like you're just listing words that appear on HN frequently. Other times
there are distinct opinions though. The mmm www tick doesn't seem to be
related to anything I can find. You are interesting person.

