The OS was created by Apostrophy, another Swiss-based company (the next issue of CET&D magazine will feature an interview with Apostrophy CEO Steve Cistulli.)
Both Apostrophy and Punkt were founded by Norwegian tech entrepreneur Petter Neby. Neby created Punkt in 2008 initially offering basic phones that help people minimize distraction from the digital world.
The MC02, which was launched this week, is the company’s first foray into smartphones. As well as its own OS, which is modeled closely on Android, the phone has a number of data privacy controls, and a built-in VPN that works at the chipset level.
While the MC02 is a fairly standard smartphone, its unique selling point is the Apostrophy operating system, known as AphyOS, which promises users far more data privacy and security than Android.
AphyOS was created using an open-source version of Android called GrapheneOS. The OS ensures user privacy by segregating apps and while it is able to run Android apps, the phone won’t include Google’s Mobile Services or the Play Store by default.
While Punkt will run on AphyOS, the plan is to make the OS available to other phone makers.
“From a personal point of view, I think it’s important that if you like Oppo or OnePlus or whatever, you should be able to have an Apostrophy on that — because that is a real choice, that’s a modern choice,” Neby told TechCrunch.