Kyocera Will Sow 'Wild Seed' Phones
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 1/20/2003
LAS VEGAS— As part of its shift from a technology-focused company to a consumer-products company, Kyocera is developing its Wild Seed phone platform, president Skip Speaks said during the Wireless Supersession at International CES.
Targeted to the youth market, Wild Seed phones will feature user-changeable chip-embedded housings that consumers can swap to change their phone's cosmetics, menu, screensaver, ring tones and other electronic features that "change the entire identity of the product," Speaks said. "A chip in the skin changes the user settings."
Kyocera hopes to offer it this year.
Young people will buy into the proposition because they can use different skins "to define themselves," Speaks said. Carriers could sell four to five skins per years to youthful consumers at perhaps $19 each, he said. And this could include Disney skins, he noted.
The phone will include color screen, built-in FM tuner, gaming keys and polyphonic ring tones, and will likely start at around $249, Speaks said.
