There’s been a longstanding issue with
going green, one that squarely impacts gadget lovers and technophiles alike:
cost. In much the same way as being a vegetarian can cost an arm and a leg in fresh
fruit and vegetables, going green when you’re hopelessly addicted to technology
is a costly endeavour. To continue the analogy, the inexpensive ‘minced meat’
gadgets are hardly those paying attention to power consumption and
manufacturing materials. In contrast, Apple’s ‘greenest Macbook ever’ is,
relatively speaking, the most expensive Macbook ever. With the prevalence of
‘eco energy’ in the news, companies have been quick to help you take up the
cause; just make sure you bring your wallet.
One large-scale example is hybrid cars, which
are marketed as a social responsibility and yet no one is going to accuse any
of the current models of being easily affordable. Energy saving light bulbs
have caught on like wildfire for the simple fact that they are affordable. LCD
TVs have been around for years and yet only since the price became reasonable
have they taken off with seeming household ubiquity. Going green needs
desperately to escape the clutches of consumer exploitation so that it can
become affordable and therefore pervasive. Protecting the environment cannot
become ‘the next best thing’ because it’s already ‘the necessary thing.’
So it’s nice to see that cell phone
manufacturer ZTE is coming out with a solar cell phone for just $40. It hasn’t
yet become embroiled in ‘green marketing’ like Samsung’s high end solar smart
phone Blue Earth. Nor is it encased in blue plastic or bespeckled with tree
decals. In fact it looks just like a standard phone. Which is good, because at
the end of the day it’s a phone first. Yes, people need to be aware of how ‘green’
your product is but at this point it should be a company’s default position to be as
environmentally sound as possible. ‘Green’ should be the baseline, the standard
model, not the deluxe edition. And that’s why ZTE’s Coral-200 spurs some hope
as a gadget that makes going green a given. We’ll see soon enough too as the
phone launches internationally in June.
The Coral-200 boasts 15 minutes of talk
time for every hour of sunlight and ZTE has teamed up with a company that
specializes in aiding those off the power grid.
