Contents

SCOPE.....................................................................................................................................................1

LIMITATIONS..........................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................2

FAILURE..................................................................................................................................................3

REASONS OF FAILURE.............................................................................................................................3

LEARNINGS FROM FAILURE....................................................................................................................5

SCOPE
The aim of this assignment is to evaluate the possible reasons for failure of a mobile phone that
comes with a massive 18000mAh battery. This handset was launched by a French company
Avenir Telecom at Mobile World Congress in February 2019. The objective of this study is to
evaluate and analyze the mistakes made by the company. The assignment is only based on one
handset only though the aforementioned company is a globally known mobile manufacturer
brand. In order to gather the relevant information about the handset, I’ve gone through various
websites and articles and references are given throughout the course of assignment for content
I have adapted from these websites and articles.

LIMITATIONS
This study is primarily focused on the failure of the Energizer pro P18K pop mobile handset and
it does not focus on the history of the company, aftermath of the failure or any other product
or service given by the company. The data is collected from various websites including the
official website where the crowdfunding took place and I am trusting the credibility of all the
sources.
INTRODUCTION
A French smartphone manufacturer, Avenir telecom, who licenses the name of Energizer to be
used on smartphones. In February 2019, Energizer showcased their new handset The Energizer
Pro P18K Pop at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona (Bedford, 2019)i. These were the
specifications of the handset:

 Screen: 6.2-inch IPS screen with 1080 x 2280 pixels - no notch or cut-out
 Processing: Mediatek Helio P70 with OctaCore CPU and Mali-G72 GPU
 Memory: 6GB RAM, 128GB storage plus microSD up to 128GB (uses SIM slot 2)
 Cameras: Main: 12MP, 5MP, 2MP depth sensor pop-up, dual-LED flash. Selfie: 16MP,
2MP depth sensor
 Comms: 5G, 4G, 3G, 2G hybrid dual-SIM, dual-band Wi-Fi, BT 5.0, FM radio
 Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 18,000mAh with 18W fast charging, USB Power Delivery
2.0, reverse charging option, USB Type-C connector
 OS: Android 9.0
The star of the show was its massive 18000mAh battery that could last for 50 days on standby
and it takes 9 hours to get fully charged. Energizer mobile contains the biggest ever battery in a
smartphone and it comes with a dual-lens front-facing pop-up camera, which makes this
handset one of its kind in terms of selfie camera (Bedford, 2019)ii .

Image credit: thenextweb.com

Energizer launched its handset on indieGoGo, a crowdfunding platform in late march 2019 to
get backers, the early bird price for backers was $549(Rs40500) and the original price was
$699(Rs51500), the phone had received massive media coverage during the launch, many
enthusiasts lined up at MWC 2019 just to get a glimpse of the handset (Telecom, 2019)iii.
FAILURE
I termed Energizer P18K pop handset as failure because when the handset was showcased for
the very first time at the MWC 2019, Barcelona, it received great media coverage and
significant number of people waited at the event to test this phone out. A month later, when
the phone was launched at indieGoGo for crowdfunding, Energizer had a goal of obtaining $1.2
million but it could only raise $ 11,022, which is just over 1% of their target. Energizer
anticipated that it will be shipping somewhere around 2500 or 3000 handsets but this huge
handset could only get 11 backers. Due to this massive failure the company called off the
crowdfunding campaign and cancelled the handset in the last week of April (Telecom, 2019)iv.

image credit:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/p18k-the-world-s-longest-lasting-smartphone#/

REASONS OF FAILURE
 Size and Design: the one obvious reason that most of the people didn’t liked the phone
is the size and design of handset, the phone is inch thick, which makes it very difficult to
carry with yourself or toy around with this handset on day-to-day basis.
 Target Audience: Energizer did not had a clear target audience and for consumers also it
was not easy to identify the specific audience for this Energizer handset. Given the two
standout features of massive 18000mAh battery and novel dual LED flash pop-up selfie
 camera, it was thought to be best suited for travelers but it seems these features are
impressive enough for intriguing curiosity rather than making this a great phone.
Energizer was targeting a very small niche segment but apart from aforementioned
features the performance of the handset was very mediocre, given that it had Mediatek
helio P70 chipset, the phone was amazingly slow. The phone had a lot of similarity with
Rugged phones like its bulky size and long lasting battery, but it lacked other features of
rugged phones such as water resistance, shock resistance, hardy design to survive rough
impacts etc. If Energizer had planned this handset as a rugged phone than it could’ve
been very useful for people who spend long periods of time without power such as
military, people who working in the oil and gas industry or even truck drivers.
 Price tag: The price at which the company wanted to sell this handset was evidently
very high. Energizer was asking $699 for a device that has internals worth of $300, it did
not represented a decent value to the customers and there were no extra features such
as protections from scratches or shocks or water resistance. At this price band even if
they had targeted the right audience, chances of success still would’ve been very less
(Davies, 2019v).
 Competition: Clearly this handset was not meant for normal users who can use it on a
day-to-day basis but there are people who will be benefitted from 18000mAh battery.
Companies such as BlackView, Ulephone,doogee and AGM have successfully funded and
launched phones with large batteries because these companies were clear about who is
their target audience and worked on features that makes their handsets hardy and
rugged phone and that too at a low price range as compared to the Energizer handset.
So performance of competitor brands also impacted the fate of Energizer P18K pop
significantly (Hughes, 2021)vi.
  Branding: when the phone was launched at MWC 2019, it carried the name of Energizer
very prominently, which is a globally-recognized and trusted name, a name with
immediate brand recognition. But when it was subsequently launched on indieGoGo a
month later, the Energizer branding was completely scrapped away for reasons which
are unknown. The only mention of “Energizer” was in a blurb about the brand Avenir
Telecom. The blurb read as following:

image credit: https ://www.indiegogo.com/projects/p18k-the-world-s-longest-lasting-smartphone#/

There was nothing to suggest that the handset would carry the recognized name of
Energizer brand. People took it as a bait and switch move because Energizer name was
prominently branded at the MWC event (Hughes, 2021)vii..

LEARNINGS FROM FAILURE

 Selection of target audience: the process of making an innovative product
includes identifying the needs of a particular segment of society and then
developing a product that will cater to their needs, but if the product is directed
towards the wrong segment of society then it doesn’t matter even if the product
is revolutionary, it will fail. Energizer failed to direct this handset to the right
group of people and this is one of the major reason of this enormous failure.
 Performance evaluation of competitors: if we exclude the huge battery of this
handset then it will become any ordinary smartphone. It’s true that users wants
more battery life in their smartphone but not if it meant that the phone will be
an inch thick. Energizer should’ve focused on brands such as BlackView, Doogee
 and Ulepohne who also launched handset with more than 1000mAh batteries
but huge battery life was not the only focus of these brands.
 Big not enough: yes, users want a good battery backup in their smartphones but
if it means that they have to carry a phone that is 3 times the weight of an
average smartphone then people will not even think of buying such a phone.
Energizer was product oriented where they should’ve been more customer
oriented. They were so thrilled with the idea of a phone that could be used as
power bank and standard smartphone simultaneously that they did not took
feasibility of the proposed product into the consideration.
i
Bedford, T. (2019, March 22). This is why no-one's buying the massive-battery energizer phone.
TechRadar India. https://www.techradar.com/in/news/this-is-why-no-ones-buying-the-massive-
battery-energizer-phone.

ii
Bedford, T. (2019, March 22). This is why no-one's buying the massive-battery energizer phone.
TechRadar India. https://www.techradar.com/in/news/this-is-why-no-ones-buying-the-massive-
battery-energizer-phone.

iii
Telecom, A. (2019, March 20). P18K: The world's longest LASTING Smartphone. Indiegogo.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/p18k-the-world-s-longest-lasting-smartphone#/.

iv
Telecom, A. (2019, March 20). P18K: The world's longest LASTING Smartphone. Indiegogo.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/p18k-the-world-s-longest-lasting-smartphone#/.

v
Davies, C. (2019, April 30). The 18,000 MAH ENERGIZER phone was a crowdfunding failure.
SlashGear. https://www.slashgear.com/energizer-p18k-18000mah-android-phone-crowdfunding-
failure-30575070/.

vi
Hughes, M. (2021, April 27). Bad news for anyone who wanted that ridiculous energizer phone.
TNW | Plugged. https://thenextweb.com/news/bad-news-for-anyone-who-wanted-that-ridiculous-
energizer-phone.

vii
Hughes, M. (2021, April 27). Bad news for anyone who wanted that ridiculous energizer phone.
TNW | Plugged. https://thenextweb.com/news/bad-news-for-anyone-who-wanted-that-ridiculous-
energizer-phone.