Mantis, Clip-On Task Lamp, Hits Quirky’s Online Store

New York, NY — February 23, 2011 — This week marks the official release of Mantis — a socially-developed task lamp and monitor light. Mantis is a versatile clip-on light that brightens your workspace, with minimal interference to your surroundings. Mantis is portable and battery operated so you can take it with you wherever you go. Quirky’s Mantis will illuminate your keyboard, bookshelf, worktable, or any other low-lit spot.

Mantis is the 77th product designed and developed by the Quirky community since Quirky’s launch on June 2, 2009. Mantis was the dream of Quirky community member Clinton Fleenor, from Richmond, Virginia, and was brought to life on quirky.com with the help of 792 influencers.

Mantis is designed to function either as a clip-on or free standing. It comes fully equipped with 11 bright LED’s and two light settings. Mantis’ replaceable batteries provide 30 hours of light and automatically shut off after two hours of use. The unit itself is 9 inches wide, with a removable clip designed to clamp onto any monitor, laptop, or shelf.

Quirky makes invention accessible by partnering with creative people around the world to bring new products to life. This week ends the development phase of Mantis, and it is now available for presale in Quirky’s online store for $26.99 (MSRP: $29.99).

You might remember other successful Quirky products including the Cloak, a sleek, sturdy iPad case; the Space Bar, a USB shelf for your computer screen; the Scratch-n-Scroll, a mousepad with a writing surface; and the PowerCurl, a cord wrap for Apple’s MagSafe power adapter.

Quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation — from ideation, design, naming, manufacturing, marketing, right on through to sales. Anyone can participate on Quirky.com either by submitting their own product idea for $10, or by voting, rating, and influencing other people’s product ideas. Cooler still, 30¢ of every dollar generated from the direct sale of a Quirky product goes back to these influencers.

Every week, users post ideas on Quirky to be rated by the Quirky community. The community surveys the submissions during a seven-day evaluation period and selects one product to move forward into product development. Quirky’s community then begins weighing in on everything from naming to logo selection to packaging through to prototype.

The final product becomes available for presale in the Quirky online store (quirky.com/products). Once the product hits its presale threshold, credit cards are charged, and the product goes into production and delivery. At this point, 30¢ of every dollar made from the sale of these products goes back to the community. “Community” in this case covers both the ideator as well as all people who voted, commented, and rated the project idea along the way.