A proposal for a renewal in the "dumb phone" industry

I know absolutely nothing of electronic design. I'm just giving my opinion of a type of product that would be ideal for my needs/lifestyle, and in my opinion many others too. I also reasoned something like this couldn't cost too much money as not that much processing power would be needed for the standards specified. I don't care whether technically the internals could be labeled "smart" or not, just well oriented for the standards I specified and nothing more, nothing less. But I'll admit it is a shock to me to hear that the cost of a not-smart phone now would be "astronomical."
Krish

"Doing it the hard way."

While all this could be done without a smart platform the removal of that would be a return to a long time ago where, well, since that's a long time ago, it's almost forgotten lore.

-> But not yet. I did work on such things and today we would never eject the smart bits as you wanted.

Maybe what you want is called a FEATURE PHONE. That's one that has features and the smart part is slightly hidden?
Bob

Yes, I'm sure it is. All this post was asking is that they put more effort into the feature phone as well as it's design and interface. The standards listed just aspects I'd want to be strong in them.

It does not work in tunnels, indoors or other places. Therefore a new system would be required?
Bob

oh, I apologize if this came off as me having no control over my own use. I didn't mean to bring myself into it, thats irrelevant. I'm just saying there should be more phones for this type of user to come out, as they would most likely be cheaper. The main joy I would have in owning a phone like this would be the design of the feature phone coming back, seeing more modern sexy designs for phones that really just stick to the basics. A plus to the phones being simpler would be that the "thin and light" equation of the cell phone would most likyl be alot easier to accomplish. And of course this would all be accompanied by the comfort of having payed for exactly what I need.

please dont mistake this post as merely a complaining about our relationship with technology today, I know very well that the problem I'm getting at is a much more internal one than an external one that getting rid of features on a smart phone can mend.

ALL I'm saying is that there ARE people out there who seek more basic functionalities in their cell phones and that also feel that this excess in every facet of our lives is not a necessarily desirable trait. there are those of us who don't feel the need for the constant connection that smart phones provide, and as far as the phone market goes for those people, its pretty crap. the feature phone is an undermined and deserted one that, where all our options are ugly, cheap feeling, archaic devices. even cheap smartphones that price at feature phone points feel poorly made and seldom do their tasks as efficiently and cleanly as smart phones do. what I and others WHO FEEL THE SAME WAY I DO would love to see are well made, quality basic phones that accomplish the most practical things (as listed above) well and are attractively designed.

I am not on some crusade to end smart phone usage, nor am I trying to undermine people who do love their smartphones. going back to EXACTLY WHAT I SAID earlier, all I'm saying is this would hit a good demographic and would have an appeal to me and others that think like me. clearly thats not the majority of people, but it definitely is some.

Now I hope you guys don't take me out of context out to be some naive sour old guy. I'm 18 years old by the way and I've grown up around technology/with computers.

I should have warned you guys that I was saying goes against our culture of excess and more, more, more. Simply because it is coming from someone who sees things quite a bit different than the mass public in that regard. Maybe I should come out with my own line of cell phones and probably just general lifestyle appliances, championing this minimalist balance oriented image. to be honest, i just made this post because I was looking at new cell phones specifically, and I thought about my ideal cell phone. truthfully I have ideas about tons of stuff like this, and no I don't think the cell phone frontier is the biggest one. it is just one of them

again, the first sentence of this post was "I CHALLENGE phone manufacturers." I know very well it goes against the current grain. I know it's not going to gratify the people who are now dependent on their smartphones and constant connection. a company would have to be courageous to make phones like this and actually put any effort into them. but I know for damn sure that it would make going back to basic phones a lot less scary for people who wish they could but are already addicted to their smartphones. these are usually people who admit to the unhealthiness of their smart phone addictions and might want an option that doesn't look and feel like it was from 2003.

It might have been a little trite to run this by cnet, a community full of very techhy people. its not a huge surprise to me that you guys wouldn't really understand why one would want "less." all I'm merely asking is "less done better" than we currently have. simple

Seeing as the cell phone companies provide smartphones at small profits and make all their money on monthly data plans, the I would think the price of this phone we wish they would make would be relatively very expensive and still not profitable enough. Hope I'm wrong.

It is hard to convince a tech audience that there are many of us who want a simple flip phone that still fits easily in a pocket. Not enough of us read posts to C/net forums to join the conversation in support of your comments. But we may be as much as 40% of the phone buying public.

I just had a good idea that would compromise the touch screen and physical. if we put the trackpad that was on the blackberry bold (remember that thing?). that would make scrolling through options much smoother whilestill being able to keep the physical keys.

also what I should add to this list is very good voice quality for calls.

How about a phone with a 10 pound battery, no text messaging, no camera, no wireless internet, a 10 digit phone display, and a battery that only lasts for about 1 hour ?? Oh wait, I was thinking about my phone from the early 1990's.

You can't put the genie back in the bottle now. Technology is constantly evolving and if you don't learn to adapt you go the way of the dinosaur.

Really? Just because I want a simple phone does not make me a dinosaur. In fact, I bet I know more about technology and actually use more technology than you.

Please don't label people. It's just not nice

You spoke your mind and I spoke mine. You are entitled to your opinion and I am too. I didn't label you, sorry if you felt otherwise.

that a Swiss army knife is the only tool they'll ever need to carry. From what I can tell, this is a "Cell phone" forum and not a "handheld multi-tasking communication and personal expression device" forum. All I offered was what I'd desire in a cell phone. Technological changes are not, IMO, always advancements. You have a number of companies competing for what's in your wallet. They are good at convincing people what they must have in order to be cool. You also have wireless service providers doing the same. Why should it be important that we should be in constant communication via text messages, live video calls, insane numbers of goofy pictures and self portraits being traded, etc? Well...because it keeps pumping other people's money into the pocket of AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc. It also keeps people exchanging these devices for the newest and "coolest" ones on a regular basis. All in the name of technological advancement? You want to talk about dinosaur bones? Those bones are the dead plastic and metal bodies of the millions of cell phone type devices that, if they don't already, will soon outnumber people both alive and deceased on this planet.

It should be a fire truck.

right, well I put the music player in there cause it would cut down on devices I had to bring outside, which is always a plus for me. same thing for the camera. but assuming you don't listen to music outside, I'm sure that would work for you.

but I don't care about music. When outside, I prefer to be aware of my surroundings and any warning noises. I don't feel a need to listen to music everywhere I go. The phone just needs to be simple enough to use and have good sound quality for both my ear and the ear at the other end. I only carry a phone as I feel the need to. It should be tethered to me and not me tethered to it. A camera could be useful if the unfortunate happens and I feel the need to collect picture evidence. That's about it. Such phones don't make a lot of money for service providers and that's why you don't see many of them either produced or advertized.

So you discount the fact that the Nokia head was on the Microsoft board?

what? I didn't say anything about that. whats that gotta do with anything? scroll down to the latter part of the article about the nokia 515.

PS that phone has a 5mp camera and 33 days of battery life! thats impressive. of course its availabe everywhere but the US

If Nokia had gone down the Android road they could risk obliteration in the marketplace. You have some thousand Android makers today (remember I do travel to other countries) and they would not have anything unique.

Try this. Find what you like and vote with your pocketbook.
Bob

Where we'd once we'd make a company feel stupid for not making products people want, they've learned how to make people feel stupid for not buying what they make. How have they done this?...by either telling you you'll be an outcast for not buying their product or that you'll be envied in some way if you do. As well, if you don't want to join the feeding frenzy, you may as well join a convent or monastery. Marketers have learned how to line us up and enter the cattle cars taking us to the Chicago slaughter houses...and have us singing their theme song all along the railway.

Igor Griffiths comments below the actual article seem to mimic some of what you have proposed regarding this mythical 'minimalist lifestyle' moniker. It's really boiling down to personal issues with learning how to 'unplug' whatever device(s) you somehow feel tethered too. I say blame the person rather than blame the device/technology. Some people can quit smoking cold turkey and don't need nicotine gum/patches

in my previous response to you. if you did you would know I agree with you when you say blame he people and tech.
idk what you mean by fluff because it was clearly a subjective article just as this is a subjective post. I just posted it because it was a good read with a similar opinion as me.
you don't seem to ave absorbed anything I said in my reply to you.