What just happened? Never mistake curiosity for a willingness to buy a product. That’s the lesson Energizer and Avenir Telecom may have learned after the massive Power Max P18K Pop, famous for its 18,000mAh battery, finished its Indiegogo campaign with $15,005 from just 11 backers—slightly short of the $1.2 million funding goal.
Back at this year's Mobile World Congress, the prototype Power Max P18K Pop gained a huge amount of attention. The successor to the Power Max P16K Pro, it upped the battery from an already massive 16,000mAh to 18,000mAh.
Energizer said its 22mm-thick handset would allow users to continuously watch videos for two days, listen to 100 hours of music, or talk for 90 hours. It also provides 50 days of standby time.
With so much interest around the phone, one might have expected it to become a crowdfunding hit. But the warning signs were there when, a week into its Indiegogo campaign, just three backers had pledged $2,725 of their money. Avenir Telecom, which licenses Energizer’s name for use on phones, was looking for a wildly optimistic $1.2 million.
Now the campaign is over and the final figure stands at $15,005, just 1 percent of its goal.
While a phone that can go days without charging is a compelling prospect, it seems the P18K’s massive size wasn’t as appealing. The mid-range Helio p70 SoC and a lack of waterproofing probably didn’t help, either.
This might not be the last we see of the P18K. Following the end of the campaign, Avenir Telecom wrote: “Although it didn’t reach its goal, we will work on further improvement on the P18K (design, thickness, etc.) as we do believe there is a rising interest for smartphones with incredible battery life, which can also be used as power banks.”
