I really feel sorry for the Mudita Pure phone team with the incurred market introduction delay due to enclosure mould issues. As an electronic engineer, I know all too well that “hardware is hard.”
However, I was wondering: Has Mudita ever considered a Pure phone version with a stacked acrylic case?
Acrylic, perspex or plexi glass is easy to laser cut, glue and it can be drilled and milled with the right tools to contain gaskets. It is naturally transparent, comes in many colours and is exceptionally strong. With some ingenuity and perhaps stacking a rubber layer, I am pretty sure you would be able to design a water resistant case for the Mudita Pure phone without a need for many PCB modifications.
For sure, you would not be winning (the same kind of) design awards. On the other hand, time to market would be significantly reduced; which is important to any startup company.
I am confident a significant portion of your potential customers would actually prefer the sturdiness and water resistance of an acrylic case over the looks of the current case design. You would be able to sell these customers an acrylic phone on a short notice and thereby starting to receive a cash flow.
Furthermore, a stacked acrylic case with sunken screws would render the phone easily serviceable. I certainly would not mind having to unscrew a few quality stainless steel in bus bolts to replace the battery, SD or SIM card. Bolt heads at the bottom may even double up as protective feet.
Here are some design ideas (some nice, other ugly) from other existing products:
