The Hottest Phones For the Next Billion Users Aren't Smartphones (wsj.com) 95
Millions of first-time internet consumers from the Ivory Coast to India and Indonesia are connecting to the web on smart feature phones that cost only about $25. "[T]hese hybrid phones, fueled by inexpensive mobile data, provide some basic apps and internet access in addition to calling and texting," the Wall Street Journal reports. From the report: While global smartphone sales began sliding last year as markets became saturated, smart feature phone shipments tripled to around 75 million from 2017, according to research firm Counterpoint. Some 84 million are likely to be shipped this year. Even as rich nations start to roll out 5G technologies, some 3.4 billion people around the world remain cut off from the internet, according to We Are Social, another research firm. Most of them already use traditional, unconnected mobile phones, meaning they can easily make the transition to similarly shaped devices capable of high-speed web connections.
Smart feature phones aren't only inexpensive, but they also have physical keypads that are less intimidating than touch screens for those new to the technology. Meanwhile, their batteries last for days, a bonus in places where electricity is unreliable. There is a trade-off for the low price. The devices typically have slower and less powerful components, only basic cameras and their screens are usually just a few inches in size, factors that contribute to their longer battery life. There also are fewer apps available for smart feature phones.
Smart feature phones aren't only inexpensive, but they also have physical keypads that are less intimidating than touch screens for those new to the technology. Meanwhile, their batteries last for days, a bonus in places where electricity is unreliable. There is a trade-off for the low price. The devices typically have slower and less powerful components, only basic cameras and their screens are usually just a few inches in size, factors that contribute to their longer battery life. There also are fewer apps available for smart feature phones.
Recycling missed opportunity (Score:2)
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This story is idiotic. These phones ARE smartphones by every definition that matters. Specs for the Reliance JioPhone are:
2.4 Inch QVGA TFT Display
1.2GHz SPRD 9820A/QC8905 Dual Core Processor
512MB RAM With 4GB Storage
Dual SIM
Bluetooth 4.1
VGA Font Camera
FM Radio
32GB Expandable Memory
2MP Camera
4G VoLTE
SOS/Torchlight
GPS/NFC
USB 2.0
2000mAh Battery
That is a smartphone. Being inexpensive doesn't make them not.
Re:Recycling missed opportunity (Score:5, Interesting)
The original definition of smartphone is: a phone on which you can install and run applications other than the bundled ones.
Curiously, this means the original iPhone was not a smartphone.
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Two problems with that. First, the original iPhone could run applications. You can even install them on the home screen. The original "apps" the iPhone ran were Javascript ones - web apps. These are still supported on iOS today. I'm not sure if they can be made to work in both iOS and Android together.
Second, only the origi
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Sometimes supported, but only if your network is always perfect and the web-app is bug-free.
From iOS 12 onwards, if you ever run into any problem that causes the web app to get into a nonfunctional state (whether because of a bug in the web app or because of a network failure while loading critical resources during web app launch), the only way to get back into a functional state is to reboot the entir
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Prior to iOS 12, in my experience, you could literally just go back to the home screen and then tap back in, and it reloaded the web app. From a performance perspective, that was bad, but from an ability to fix brokenness perspective, it was great. Of course, it also probably depends on whether you provide a MANIFEST or not. I would not be surprised if I disabled the MANIFEST because of it causing 100x more problems than it solved.
FirefoxOS (Score:5, Interesting)
One thing not reported in the article here is that KaiOS is basically FirefoxOS. It's literally based on the FirefoxOS code, runs Gecko, etc.
In other words, the FirefoxOS product and strategy is working ... after Mozilla abandoned it.
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In other words, the FirefoxOS product and strategy is working ... after Mozilla abandoned it.
FirefoxOS was trying to be an alternative, KaiOS is more or less a gateway drug for Facebook/Google etc. to hook the next billion users. Sure, they now have a partner model that pays the bills but it's only cementing existing industry giants so the strategy is quite different.
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I've been using computers since the 80s (late 70s, really) and I've never been able to understand icons without text, especially when they keep changing them on every release.
They still make feature phones?!? (Score:2)
I don't get it... you can now get refurbished Android phones from the likes of ZTE for about $29 each now. They aren't great, but they do have small usable touch screens and cameras. With price points that low, WHY would someone still buy a flip phone?
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Re:They still make feature phones?!? (Score:5, Informative)
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The keyboard is a silly answer, if you have a big screen like on a smartphone then that doesn't matter. What matters is power consumption... if you have that big screen then the phone will suck power no matter what you do any time the display is being used.
Flip phones would last for multiple days with tiny little batteries, yet it takes less resources to produce them. If you're expecting a nation to develop, and people will want to replace their phones anyway, then it makes sense to use the minimum amount o
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It doesn't matter to you. But, try operating a smart phone with one hand, or without looking at it.
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If all you want is a phone to make calls on and send the occasional text, it is a lot cheaper than paying for a data plan that many of us rarely use and really don't want. Also, if you could get a real flip phone, you wouldn't have to worry about any of the apps spying on you, just your service provider tracking your cell tower usage. I'm sure modern flip phones with a data plan have all the same privacy concerns as a smart phone. One more thing, my smartphone cost a lot more than my old flip phone and I
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Because 29 US dollars is still a third of their household's monthly income, if they're lucky?
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The funny thing is that the cheap Android phones still have headphone jacks. You need to pay more to get a phone that's missing that feature, probably because they figured that people who are willing to spend over $500 on a phone are also willing to spend $150 on wireless earbuds.
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A number of reasons:
* I want a cheap phone with me when I go on vacation. I need voice, text, and that's basically it. If the phone gets stolen, it is cheap to replace, and I'm not worried about an attacker being able to grab my cloud or MFA credentials. With a SIM card lock that has an eight digit PIN (where three attempts require a PUK, and after 20+ attempts on the long PUK, the SIM fries itself for good), that is an effective deterrent for someone trying to get access. Especially combined with the
Again? (Score:3)
I seem to remember an SC3x with a better baseband etc. How that strategy turned out and how they sold was way above my pay grade.
Baseband: 2-3 ARM cores, SDCC controller, USB controller, video controller, etc. They all had an ARM 7 to do basic phone stuff, an ARM 9 for games and such, and earlier ones had an ARM 6 for basic housekeeping (ARM 7 took that over in later versions).
RF chip: Fancy analog to digital converter. Took various frequencies and encoding schemes, converted them to digital, and fed the data to the baseband. And the other way as well.
PMIC: Power Management IC. Don't need the radio? Turn it off. Don't need USB? Turn it off. Don't need the display? Turn it off. 16 different circuits it could turn on/off as needed. Why? Saves battery life.
Nokia 8110 4G (Score:5, Interesting)
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I am still using my N900 as my daily-driver and will continue to do so until it breaks and can't be easily fixed, until a better phone comes out (unlikely given the Neo900 seems to be dead at this point) or until other things mean I have to upgrade (e.g. I end up with a must-have app that wont run at all on the N900 or important web sites stop working on the N900 or my carrier drops the bands the N900 needs or I go overseas to a country where taking the N900 isn't an option and I need to buy a new phone for
From the Shut-up-I'm-old dept. (Score:2)
The hottest vulnerability play in words (Score:1)
Most of these phones have very limited RAM/ROM so security updates are almost impossible on these disposable communications devices.
Get fucking real, software and hardware makers. You failed at figuring out the first three OSI layers, you have no business going any further until you fix your basic fuckups there.
Re: Where can I get one? (Score:2)
Less room and performance for ads. (Score:2)
I totally get it.
Whenever a smartphone upgrade is due, I ponder a Crossgrade to a feature or dumber phone with KaiOS or something.
Much of the web and the mobile web has become unusable due to ads and the "look, I can chat and send pictures" novelty effect has vanished.
Actually it is the camera, maps and online PT schedule tables that usually sway me back into smartphone territory.
But I totally get going back to dumbphones and paper calenders.
doesn't need much resources (Score:3)
once you remove all ad, tracking and spying software, you just don't need that much cpu power to run them apps.
the screen may smaller, but with no ads filling half of it, you're not missing out on anything.
"fueled by inexpensive mobile data" (Score:4, Insightful)
Then here in America, this device trend will never become popular.
Well, they are hot (Score:2)
...because it's hot in India, Africa and South-America.
The main question is (Score:2)
Why are those phones not available to people in other countries?
Could it be, just maybe, that price has nothing to do with production cost and is just how much they think they can milk us for?
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Their called "burners" and are available at any gas station or supermarket for $50 or so.
Bonus: it has its own sim card, so if lost/stolen it provides no access to your data.