Am I going to ditch my iPhone for a Puma phone? No. I am, however, really impressed by how Puma has chosen to enter a space that’s already way over-saturated. In an industry full of me-too-ing, they clearly recognized that the only chance they have to make any mark is to come to market with something genuinely different and from the looks of these demos and screenshots, they’ve done just that. This is evident from the memorable (and very well-branded) UI, the playfulness that permeates the OS and even some of the hardware additions:
That might be thanks to some of the silly stuff like a calculator that teases you when you try an operation it deems too trivial, a pet puma on the device called Dylan (who shows up on-screen when you leave your handset untouched for a while), and an audio player with a turntable you can actually scratch—but the real draw is probably the solar panel around back.
In a lot of ways, Puma is showing up manufacturers that have been making phones for years by demonstrating how even the little guy can make a splash if he’s willing to take a chance.
Read more about it over at engadget.