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For the next few months, we’ve decided to dig into the CR4 archives and expand upon some blog posts from 2007. Back then, we published a series of lists of women inventors and now we will write full blog posts about those who have yet to be featured. Do you know of a great person to be a subject? Let us know!
Randice-Lisa Altschul has had no shortage of good ideas. She’s licensed more than 200 toys and games over the years. But she’s most known for her idea and execution of a disposable cell phone.
In 1996, she was driving and talking on her mobile phone (not advisable, but the story is the story), and her connection was going from bad to worse and the conversation was not audible. The frustration made her want to throw the phone out the car window. Then she thought, if it were disposable, she could!
She thought that a phone that could be recycled once the minutes were used up might be handy for travelers or people who didn’t want to commit to a monthly phone plan if they were using it minimally.
In 1999, she teamed up with Lee Volte, the Senior VP of Research & Development at Tyco. The device they came up with was similar in size to a phone card, about the size of a credit card. It was made from recycled materials and incorporated a magnetic strip. The phone used an elongated flexible circuit and the ultrathin circuitry was made by applying metallic conductive inks to the paper. It also included some of her patented STTM, super-thin technology material, which opened the door for invention of cheaper versions of existing electronics.
The phone could only make calls, not receive them, but it boasted up to 60 minutes of call time and was sold for about $20. Once the minutes were used, turning in the old phone could earn a rebate or more minutes could be purchased for continued use.
Her background in toy and game invention surely helped with the thought process here. Some of her toy inventions included a Miami Vice game and breakfast cereal shaped like section figures that turned into mush.
"The greatest asset I have over everyone else in that business is my toy mentality," Altschul told the New York Times. "An engineer's mentality is to make something last, to make it durable. A toy's lifespan is about an hour, then the kid throws it away. You get it, you play with it and — boom — it's gone."
She created a marketing strategy targeted to mothers and children who are traveling separately and need to communicate, tourist groups or people not interested in the attachment and cost of a cell phone but need to be contacted.
While her actual invention has yet to go to market, the idea has been put into place by numerous companies. She continues to work on other inventions including a disposable laptop with a similar build.
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