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Danish smartphone start-up ID2me flops after a year

The Local Denmark
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Danish smartphone start-up ID2me flops after a year
The ID1 phone offered quicker use of apps using one and two-finger gestures. Photo. ID2me screen grab

The Danish smartphone start-up which hoped take on Apple and Samsung with its ID1 phone has filed for bankruptcy just a year after launch.

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ID2me, founded by former Nokia executive Christina Agger, launched in January last year, aiming to target younger users with a circular 'drag 'n release' interface that would cut the number of clicks required to carry out tasks, making for a faster experience. 
 
“We believe that the time has come to provide structure for the smartphone platform and design a simpler way to navigate your phone," it explained on its website, arguing its system offered "a far more logical structure for your Android phone".  
 
It hoped to allow users to find applications by feel using instant vibration, allowing them to operate their phones without looking at the screen.
 
But according to Denmark’s Finans newspaper, bankruptcy proceedings for the company have now been published in Statstidende, Denmark’s official gazette, with the international firm EY appointed liquidator. 
 
Lisa Bo Larsen, the partner handling the insolvency for EY confirmed to the newspaper that the bankruptcy was taking place. 
 
Agger could not be reached for comment on Friday, but according to Finans, she had previously claimed to have staked everything on her company’s success. 
 
"Everything has been mortgaged and the car has been sold, so I’m in with all my skin and hair and soul,” she told the newspaper. “It requires a lot from your family when you work all the time and are not paid, but that is probably how it is for all entrepreneurs." 
 
Agger had received most of her financing from the family fund of Lisbeth Enø, the designer who helped make the Danish jewellery company Pandora a runaway success. 
 
The phone was initially sold in Danish branches of the Scandinavian electronics giant Elgiganten, but the chain stopped stocking it after just two months when the company was forced to slash the phone's price from 4,000 to 3,000 Danish krone ($570-$430). 
 
Agger launched the phone with outdoor advertising campaign run across Denmark, and also opened launched an ID Lab in Copenhagen, where people could try out the unusual interface. 
 
Beneath the interface, the phone was a standard android phone produced in China. 
 
 
Here's a YouTube video by reviewer Lutz Herkner showing how the interface works. 
 

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