Cycle Phones

We're making the world's first phone that gets faster, cheaper, and more powerful over time.

The Problem

Every year, millions of phones, tablets, and computers are thrown into the landfill. When it comes to cellphones, today's modern devices are designed to be disposable. Most people don't want to break the bank upgrading their phone, they're rather forced to when their old device gets too slow, the battery doesn't last like it used to, or it gets physically damaged. So how could a Cycle phone help fix this?

Let the Cloud do the work

Instead of using the tiny processor in your phone to do all the computations, we use a dedicated server to run your phone. This means that as we upgrade our servers, your phone will get access to more power at a cheaper cost, making it get faster over time, instead of slower.

The average phone is replaced every 2-3 years, but with a phone that has a replaceable battery, replaceable screen, and gets more powerful over time, we have a target lifetime for Cycle devices of 5-10 years.

See our Technology in Action

To display how the revolutionary aspect of our technology is in the software we’ve developed, we’ve put it up against modern phones in some speed tests to show that performance is largely independent of hardware limitations.

Cycle is running Android on an $80 AliBaba phone on the right side, and the Samsung Galaxy S10 is running Android on the left hand side:

Here Cycle is running on a 7 year old Samsung S5 phone on the left hand side, and the iPhone X is on the right hand side:

So how does our Software work exactly?

Cycle hosts a virtual Android device in the cloud and streams it to your device. Instead of using the tiny processor in your phone to do the computations needed for your apps, we use a dedicated server to run your device. Your inputs are sent from your device to a server and the output is streamed back as video.

Utilization Rates

Currently we walk around with a tremendous amount of processing power in our pockets, many modern phones have 8+ GB of RAM and quad core processors pushing 2.5+ Ghz. But it’s amazing how rarely this power is used. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day, your phone can only really be working about 2/3rds of the time. And that’s only if you were using your device every waking moment. As addicted to our mobile devices as we may be, the average American spends 'only' about 3 hours a day on their phone, or 12.5% of the day. With roughly 13% utilization, the next question is how much of that time is anywhere near peak usage? 8GB is an insane amount of memory, does browsing Instagram really require that kind of horsepower? No, of course not. Even worse regarding utilization rate is modern desktop PC’s, and it’s no wonder they are on the decline these days. Even with extremely cheap hardware prices, the value proposition is diminishing daily for most users. PC ownership is in a decline, and we expect this to become more of a free fall in the next decade or so. By using Cycle, we can give people as much computing power as they need, when they need it, and when they're not using their phone, that power can be used by someone else.

There are already options for USB-C to HDMI on most modern phones, and you can easily turn your phone into a PC for the few hours a week you need a big screen and keyboard. Uber figured out the trick to utilization rates years ago; most people don’t really drive their car much. The average American spends about 5% of their time in what is probably the second most expensive asset they own. Ridesharing has gotten that number up to 15% for some drivers. This nets the driver extra money they can use to help pay for their expensive asset, and gives riders the option to go car free. This is more economical and better for the environment. Why make two cars when you only need one?

Taking this technology a step further.

With Cycle, we’re developing a solution where you can plug your phone into a screen, keyboard, mouse, and voila! You've got a full sized desktop computer. Well, something close to it. Oh, and because you're hooked up to a supercomputer, it's lightning quick.

Market Potential

In 2019, 1.37 billion smartphones were sold. That’s enough to give everyone in the world a phone in just 6 years. At an average of $802 per phone, that totals $1,098,740,000,000. 

Yes, a trillion dollar market, and climbing fast. If we can offer the same results as a new phone for $4.99 a month, it will be a compelling option for many people. Forcing smartphone manufacturers to produce flagship phones only worth $300 instead of $1200 would decimate their profits. It is very likely that the current manufacturers will only target budget options at developing nations, and will continue profiting off of expensive, localized hardware.

Q&A With CEO Adam Macdonald:

Changing the Cycle

Let's say goodbye to planned obsolescence. Tech giants such as Apple and Samsung face lawsuits and fines every year for intentionally retiring old devices to keep you buying new ones. Every 2-3 years, 3.5 billion devices are thrown away, with only 16% of all electronic waste actually being recycled. That means nearly 3 billion phones and tablets go straight to the landfill. The worst part? Most of these devices are still functional. As big of a problem this is, it's easy to understand why this is happening. After all, your phone gets slower over time and the battery life just isn't the same after a couple of years. Our mission is to shift the way we think about devices from something that is disposable, to something that is both less expensive and designed to last. Together we can stop paying thousands of dollars upgrading our phones; it's time to change the Cycle.