Motorola launches wind-up phone

NEWS Motorola is turning back time to launch a wind-up mobile phone charger that it is hoping will run like clockwork. Freeplay Energy Group, the UK firm behind the clockwork radio, and Motorola Companion & Accessories Division are developing the mobile phone charger, which is expected to become available next month. Rory Stear, chairman and CEO of Freeplay, said: "This is a strategic milestone in the history of our company as it takes self-sufficient energy applications into a different sphere. Not only does this open up a raft of applications in the developed world but the opportunity across the developing world is also tremendously exciting." The first Freeplay radio was launched in 1996 for use in the developing world. Its wind-up mechanism was encased in a shell tough enough to survive an air drop. By 1999, the see through wind-up radio included a solar panel and represented 10 per cent of UK radio sales.