Philips
Genie

When Philips unveiled the Genie phone at the CeBIT trade show in 1999 it was the smallest and lightest phone on the market. Its unique design made it stand out from rival products, particularly the pop-out microphone that could be used to answer and end calls. The pop-out mic was known internally by the Philips development team as "the tongue". It was primarily designed to reassure people they would be able to be heard on such a small phone, as well as offering the pop-out-to-answer functionality. It was not needed for microphone performance and was removed from a later version of the phone, the Genie Sport. The phone also supported voice dialling, a feature promoted in the marketing for the device. At the time, 99g was an almost unthinkable weight target for a mobile phone and Philips went to great lengths to achieve it. This was a hugely important weight target as it surpassed a 100g benchmark that Motorola had set. One weakness of the Genie phone was its external antenna which was susceptible to snapping off when squashed in a pocket. The pop-out microphone also faced challenges and could become unreliable if dust or other particles became stuck in the mechanism.