Can Lotus Phones Resurrect the Soul of Blackberry?

When Apple announced the iPhone, I told anyone who would listen that I was sure that it would be a flop. Surely, I thought, nobody would want to do any real work on a mobile device that lacked a real, tactile keyboard. It isn’t possible to be more wrong with a prediction, but many users do dislike the direction taken by smartphone manufacturers. That’s why Lotus Phones is launching the Diplomat on Indiegogo, but it may not be what it seems.

I was genuinely surprised to see that the New Lotus Phones Indiegogo campaign has already raised more than its $50,000 funding goal. These are niche devices being sold by an unknown company and many in the community are skeptical, to say the least. But these products do demonstrate that people have an interest in modern smartphones with old school touches.

There are two devices launching on Indiegogo: the Lotus Diplomat smartphone and the Lotus Pocket tablet. Both are Android devices with top-of-the-line specs, distinct style, and quirky features like FM radios and always-on displays showing emulated analog clocks. There is even a universal remote control for the Lotus devices, for some reason.

But Reddit users have pointed out a number of issues that should give potential backers pause. First, there are no physical prototypes yet. All we have are renders and those aren’t even particularly good. Then there is the project website, which looks like it was designed in 1998 and doesn’t function properly. And the brand name is inconsistent, with Lotus-JB, Lotus Technologies, Lotus Machines, Lotus Phones, New Lotus Phones, and Lotus Devices used interchangeably.

The biggest red flag, however, is simply how ambitious this project is. Launching a completely new flagship smartphone takes a massive amount of time, money, and engineering expertise. It is hard to imagine a new startup pulling that off without serious investment and $50,000 in Indiegogo funding certainly isn’t enough.

So check out the campaign, but keep your guard up.