Anti-Smartphone Phone Launched For Technophobes

geek4 writes "A Dutch company has launched what it calls 'the world's simplest phone,' targeting users who are sick of new-generation models. Only capable of making and receiving calls, John's Phone is dubbed the world's simplest mobile phone, specifically designed for anti-smartphones users. It does not provide any hi-tech features. No apps. No Internet. No camera. No text messaging. All you have to do — in fact, all you can do — is call, talk and hang up."

Comments

Re:Expensive Price

[AlanMJones]

The lack of features IS the expensive feature. Because of that the volume is low and the price per unit is higher to make it, I would expect.

Re:Old people rejoice

[synthesizerpatel]

I imagine old people will enjoy 3 weeks of battery standby time and not being pestered by SMS spam.

Re:Technophobes?

[YrWrstNtmr]

Exactly. I have a very basic PAYG phone from VirginMobile. $20. No frills, no web, blah, blah. Why? Because I simply don't/can't use it much.
At work, no cell phones. Period. At home, landline and multiple PC's. If we're out with friends, we're out with friends, not dinking around on the phone.

Re:Technophobes?

[godrik]

texting is a nice feature. But I must say I am very happy with my crappy basic phone. My shopping for phone session went something like:
-"hello, I'm looking for a cheap phone that can call 911 and keep me in touch with my wife in case of emergency and that will last more than a week without being plugged in"
-"Here is our cheapest nokia sir, have a good day"

Yes, you may still be a technophobe.

[SanityInAnarchy]

If you're seriously considering this phone, especially paying extra for it -- have you seen it? RTFA.

Let me put it this way: Why would you want a phone without at least an address book? I'm with you that it's gotten out of control, but why would I want a paper address-book stuck to the phone, so I can take it off the back, flip through it, and manually type that into the front? Every time I want to call someone, I'd have to do that.

Or I can press probably fewer buttons than it would take to actually dial the number, and only have to remember the person's name.

Yes, I do "just want a fucking phone." But this isn't just a fucking phone -- the paper addressbook does indeed scream "technophobe."

Re:Yes, you may still be a technophobe.

[martin-boundary]

The real reason why people want phones with no features is the terrible, absolutely terrible, user interface design of all mobile phones (and that includes smartphones).

When a phone has no features other than dialling a number, then (for example for a brick with a simple keypad) the interface fits well with the hardware design.

When a phone has multiple features and you have to press complicated and unintuitive key combinations to access them, then there's a mismatch between what the hardware is designed for (simple keypad for typing numbers) and what the software is designed for (lots of things that don't map well onto keypad interaction).

The same is true with menu systems. Cursor keys are simply awkward ways of interacting, and menus are awkward ways of using limited screen space in general.

What's really needed is for a good designer to invent a totally new hardware paradigm for mobile phones that actually makes sense for the kind of software features we expect on mobile phones. That's much easier said than done. Instead, we're stuck with old style phone handset designs on one side, and old style PC/GUI/WIMP designs on the other, and every mobile phone designer tries to combine them in different ways, hoping to hit the jackpot, but always failing.