Competing For A Greener Tomorrow

Several unique phones today were released simultaneously to compete on a new market, the green market. This unique market is focused to delivering different trends on how to help the environment through their mobile phones. There are currently two types of mobile phone that is said to compete on this unique market, Samsung's Blue Earth and Motorola's W233 Renew. So which of these are the best?

Samsung Blue Earth
Samsung Blue Earth is a touchscreen phone made from recycled plastic culled from plastic water bottles, called PCM. This new Samsung mobile phone is to have its own solar panel, which is unique for a mobile phone. These solar panels are found on the back which will allow for enough power to make phone calls. A battery will provide the energy for other functions, but the recharger will be energy efficient. Samsung is also keen to point out that the Samsung Blue Earth's packaging is made from recycled paper and the charger uses less than 0.03W in standby mode. The phone was only announced in February of 2009, so there isn't too much details on its capabilities aside from its touchscreen and solar energy technology.

Motorola W233 Renew
The W233 Renew is a mobile phone, targeting the green market, released in 2009 by Motorola. According to Cellular Motorola Philippine phone reviewers, Motorola claims it is the world's first mobile phone made using post-consumer recycled plastic; in this case plastics comprising of recycled water bottles. Announced at CES on January 6, 2009, its plastic housing is also 100 percent recyclable.

In addition, the W233 is claimed as the world's first carbon neutral phone. Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola has offset the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone via investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation. After an extensive product life-cycle assessment, the W233 earned Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree Product Certification. The focus on use of natural resources extends to the packaging, which was reduced by 22 percent during design. All materials inside the box are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. According to Cellular Motorola Philippine phone enthusiasts, a postage-paid recycling envelope is included too, so consumers can send off their old phone for recycling at no extra cost.

In terms of its features however, the W233 is much less exciting. According to Cellular Motorola Philippine phone enthusiasts, it's an entry-level dual-band GSM phone, with a 128 x 128 pixel color display, a WAP browser, and support for 2GB of addition memory. The only really impressive thing to note is the amazing battery life: talk time is up to 550 minutes and standby is up to 18 days.