Nigel Waller failed to make a $5 phone so he made a 20 cent 'Cloud Phone' instead

In 1985, the MIT Media Lab opened. "At the Media Lab, the future is lived, not imagined. In a world where radical technology advances are taken for granted, Media Lab researchers design technologies for people to create a better future." (http://www.media.mit.edu/) This mission led to the creation of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) which distributes low cost laptops to children all over the world. The unintended consequences of OLPC were drastic cost reductions in commercially available laptops. (http://laptop.org/en/)

Nigel Waller set out on a similar mission. His goal: to create a $5 cell phone. He failed miserably. The cheapest phone he able to produce still cost around $20. To put that in perspective, a worker making $2 a day would have to spend 6 months of their savings to buy a $25 phone. Waller came up with the idea of a 'Cloud Phone'. For 10 to 20 cents a person can buy a phone number that will correspond to a single cell phone that is shared between people in a village. This enables people the freedom to maintain their own number without the unaffordable cost (~$20) of purchasing their own cell phone. Waller is building partnerships with carrier companies to roll out the technology in emerging markets. His goal was to have over a million people using the 'Cloud Phone' at this point. To date, he is in the thousands and growing. There have been some cultural norms as well as implementation hurdles but Waller is well on his way to achieving affordable cell access for the people of the developing world.

I want to highlight three key takeaways:

1. Social Innovators Steal / Share Ideas - if it had not been for OLPC I seriously doubt the goal of a $5 phone would have arisen.
2. Fail, Fail, Fail, Adapt, SUCCEED! - Waller failed to create a $5 phone. It was what came in response to his failure that defines Waller. He adapted to the circumstances and is now implementing a feasible solution to the problem. The fear of failure has not stopped the fulfillment of his mission.
3. Build Strategic Partnerships - Waller is an idea man. He had the know how to turn an idea into an invention. Now he is partnering with corporate cell carriers to implement his vision on a large scale. He could not have done this on his own. Waller recognized what resources he needed and went after them to achieve true innovation. 

Below is a link to a recent interview with Waller and CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/21/cloud.phone/index.html?hpt=Sbin