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This story is part of CES 2016. Our editors bring you complete CES 2016 coverage and scour the showroom floor for the hottest new tech gadgets around.
ZTE plans to make a phone designed by you, suggesting the possibility of flexible screen you can roll up in your pocket when you don’t need it.
The Chinese company on Tuesday revealed Project CSX, a scheme to get phone fans to offer ideas and vote on what they want to see in the finished device. Joining XTE’s online Z-Community will allow you to have a say in the design of the new phone, which is set to be built in a year.
“Z-Community will bring people together to contribute their ideas or vote on what matters to them,” said ZTE CEO Jeff Yee at a CES press conference in Las Vegas. “We will build the device that our users want.”
ZTE revealed the plan in at annual trade show, where tech titans gather to show off their forthcoming products. Yee went on to promise that the crowdsourced device will be unveiled at next year’s CES.
Though one of the world’s largest suppliers of telecommunications equipment, ZTE has little consumer brand awareness. The Z-Community project could help change that. The company also made a splash last summer when it introduced the Axon Pro, a high-end unlocked smartphone geared toward US customers that’s sold only on its website.
Yee’s first suggestion for the potential device is a flexible screen that could be rolled up when not in use then laid flat when you want to use it. ZTE calls it the “flex screen,” and wants to know if consumers would use it.
To get involved, ZTE fans can be a part of Z_Community at community.zteusa.com.
The Chinese company also announced two new phones, the $129 ZTE Grand X3 for US carrier Cricket and the $114 Avid Plus for T-Mobile and MetroPCS.
