Clicks for iPhone

Key numbers

The product

Clicks is a wraparound iPhone case with 36 backlit physical keys that connects through the phone's Lightning or USB-C port, drawing power from the phone with no battery or Bluetooth. Typing on it reclaims the screen space normally consumed by the on-screen keyboard and enables full keyboard shortcuts like Cmd+Space and Cmd+H via a dedicated Command key. It launched at $139 for the iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro and $159 for the 15 Pro Max, in BumbleBee yellow and London Sky gray. Unlike the ill-fated Typo keyboard case (which BlackBerry sued out of existence), Clicks uses distinct round keys and was advised by veteran BlackBerry keyboard designers including Joseph Hofer of the BlackBerry Bold. The founders position it around 'space, shortcuts and sensation' rather than pure nostalgia, and the company has since expanded to new iPhone generations and other form factors.

How they did it

The company grew out of a 15-year friendship between two of the most prominent phone creators on YouTube: Michael Fisher, whose MrMobile channel made him the internet's loudest advocate for physical buttons, and Kevin Michaluk, who founded CrackBerry.com in 2007 as the No.1 BlackBerry fansite. In late 2022 they teamed up with Liangchen Chen, an engineer whose company F(x)Tec had built a slider-keyboard Android phone in 2018, effectively a three-founder team with deep hardware experience. The tiny group worked for over a year with advisors from BlackBerry and Apple, including Bold keyboard designer Joseph Hofer. Clicks debuted at CES in January 2024 and began shipping February 1, 2024, with an in-person launch event in Brooklyn; the first inventory sold out almost immediately. Coverage from CNET, The Verge and the New York Post amplified the launch far beyond the founders' own large audiences. The company has since grown into a going concern, iterating new versions for each iPhone generation and expanding its product line.

Why it worked

• Founders had built-in distribution: two YouTube channels with millions of combined views eliminated early marketing costs
• Tapped deep nostalgia for physical keyboards that Apple and every major phone maker had abandoned
• Genuine product differentiation (screen reclamation, hardware shortcuts, no battery) rather than a gimmick
• Small team of specialists with direct BlackBerry keyboard design lineage gave the product real typing credibility