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The Feature Phone Is Dead: Long Live the 'Basic Smartphone'
zarmanto writes: "The numbers have been telling us for a while now that (formerly expensive) feature phones have been slowly displaced by more feature-rich, high-end smartphones. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the other end of the market is also receiving active encroachment by low-end smartphones. Now, ARM is suggesting that it's actually quite conceivable for OEMs to produce a 'smartphone' for as little as $20 — as long as you compromise a bit on those things which actually make it a smartphone in the first place. So, is this just more graying of the line between smartphones and feature phones? Or is this an indication that the feature phone (as we used to know it) is finally well-and-truly dead?"
Or is this an indication that the feature phone (as we used to know it) is finally well-and-truly dead?"
Assuming we've heard of this term "feature phone" in the first place.
... I require of my phone is that it make calls and sends/receive texts. My Tracfone costs me about $120 bucks a year. I'm not paying that much per MONTH for a smartphone for the added benefit of playing Candy Crush and watching cat videos on YouTube.
We could guess, or infer that it's the set of phones which are not "smart", but go ahead, Editor, leave out the definition of 'feature phone'. Also, TFA never really spells it out, so it just highlights how divorced from reality Gartner is.
I suspect the real desire has nothing to do with the phone itself. The telcos just want to move everyone they possibly can from merely-slightly-expensive voice plans to very-expensive data plans.
(Then call that "broadband internet access" for regulatory purposes.)
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
That's all I ask. Even on the crap Android 2.2 phone that was my original smartphone, being able to easily manage my calendars and contacts was HUGE. It was such a step up over the feature phones I'd previously had...
I know the world is all about apps - but I could live with a basic smartphone that just did those two things (on top of the phone things - calling and SMS/MMS of course). Especially since I find my iPad Mini to be the perfect size for most other mobile tasks.
#DeleteChrome
never heard of that phrase. I have heard of a dumbphone, but not a basic smartphone. I still have my old flip phone that is dumb. It is so old that it only has 1900 and 900 MHz GSM and G2 WAP capability. lol
This story will now be flooded by the "I am so retro-cool because I own a Nokia 1100 with a 1-incg monochrome LCD and it does all I ever need it to do" crowd.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
The analysis is ignoring everyone who can't use a smartphone because of environmental factors (feature phones are much more resilient to dust, sand, impacts/falls, moisure, etc.) or techophobia (it's difficult to teach people a new UI, especially a non-tactile one, beyond a certain age).
Feature phones will continue to be with us for a long time to come.
All things smartphone are getting cheaper, and the phone company subsidies are still there it seems. And any iPhone launch event seems to have leftovers of the previous generation with "free" signs for the lowest model of that class. Seems like there's always a smartphone available... and is last year's iPhone worth nothing when the new one comes out to you?
Where is the Android flip phone in the US?
It is easy to claim that Android can be used on these types of devices, however these devices will have little memory to keep price down. If you could load Android 4.x onto the original HTC Dream then by all means bring on the low end phones.
Still waiting to see how FirefoxOS compares, as they are going after the low end market but I know that Firefox on Android is not the best with limited memory (I believe that Opera Mobile takes that title, so naturally it is discontinued).
....and this thermos!
If your phone is made for $20, it is not a smartphone. Even if it can check email and vaguely browse the web, it is not a smartphone. It's a feature phone. Deal with it.
No, I don't care that it runs a pared down version of Android. That still doesn't make it a smartphone. Just because manufactures want to sell them and have figured out that people want smartphones and don't want feature phones so calling them smartphones helps sales does not make them smartphones.
Obligatory car analogy: Hyundai could call my Accent a sportscar and, just like a sportscar, it has an engine and rolls around on four tires, it isn't a sports car, no matter how much Hyundai wants to increase sales by tapping into sports car demand nor how much I wish I owned a sports car rather than an Accent.
They aren't smartphones.
Deal with it.
Since I don't really use mobile data (2G, 3G, whatnot), any basic phone I buy would need WiFi.
I suppose the Nokia Asha is a "basic smartphone" the $100 price. Problem is, there are Android smartphones in that price range. They may not be able to store or run a ton of apps, but they sometimes have higher resolutions than the Asha (not sure about build quality, though).
The cheap Firefox phone might be a problem for this reason. My understanding is that it uses web apps. Web apps use data which costs money. People buying a cheap phone will likely go for a cheap service like an MVNO. That means no data or limited use of data. It seems an Android device would be better for dataless users (run VLC and connect to WiFi for everything else).
Word verification: flagged
I don't understand this summary.
If smart phones are "feature rich", then what is a feature phone? If a feature phone is a phone with features, but not a smart phone, then surely a low end smart phone is a feature phone? What constitutes a feature anyways? My old motorola flip phone with pull out antenna had snake on it. that seems like a feature?
The concept of a "smartphone" seems to change at least twice a year. I seem to recall that some time ago it was just a phone that was also a PIM. Then Apple and others told us that a smart phone had to store and play music. Then Facebook told us the smart phone had to natively give them all our personal infomation. Then we were told a phone can't be smart without a 12 megapixel camera with zoom. Then we were told any phone that accesses the internet wirelessly slower than a cable modem isn't smart.
Now, I have no idea what consittutes a smartphone. It apparently is just whatever our carriers tell us (and of course whatever makes them the most money in contract and sales fees).
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I miss my Sanyo Katana. Very easy to use one-handed without looking at it.
If it rings, open it up and talk, and close it when you're done. To call home or
the wife, open it and use the nice physical buttons to locate 2 or 3 and hold
it down. Again close when done. Much easier.
I have a year and half old LG that I paid 45$ for that does most of the things I want and has a real keyboard. I bought a new battery for it on it's anniversary but I haven't had the urge to spend any more on a phone.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Speaking as someone the rest of you might consider a Luddite because I have a feature phone (it's a Samsung with a touchscreen, I don't know the model), the devil's in the details of what the carriers require of you to connect the phone to their network.
Verizon requires you to have a data plan to even use (e.g.) an iPhone. Even if you never use the data service. If Verizon considers your phone a "Smart Phone", they require you to have and pay for a data plan to use it. My understanding is that the other carriers have the same policy. The people that are buying these phones are paying these monthly fees.
If you knew me, you'd know I'm not really a Luddite. For example, when I play my guitar, I don't play with a tube amp, but use a device that models a tube amp that is then plugged directly into a P.A. I pay for said device (a Line 6 HD 500) with the money I save by not paying for a data plan. I prefer to say I'm frugal.
Also, what others have noted: It's Gartner. Seriously?
...it's not like the carriers don't make it hard to get a dumb-phone or feature-phone. You have all of a selection of 0-5 in a store carrying 60 some phones.
And no, the store doesn't get to decide what to carry. Corporate does; which is why you get insane things like stores in the Washing D.C metro area carrying all phones with cameras when 50% of the working population (a fluke of the W.D.C area) isn't allowed to have a camera (let alone a camera phone) at their desk at work.
So Corporate has decided to sell Smartphones instead of feature phones; and they have made it really hard to get anything less. No wonder that's what shows up in the statistics.
Now I do quite agree that smartphones do have some good features - I switched my Motorola v180 for a NexusOne specifically for the contacts, calendaring, and data synchronization features - anything else being gravy, and no I didn't (and still don't) want a data plan. I'm happy using it with WiFi only for all data.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
.
The smartphone's biggest detriment to me is all the data that resides on it, and how much the apps track your every move.
My wife still carries a 4 year old Samsung feature phone with a slider keyboard. The reason? She doesn't like having to charge a handset every day or two. Her little phone will go for several weeks without charging, so she can just leave it in her shoulder bag most of the time. Her service is also dirt cheap because she doesn't have to worship at the altar of data -- she pays about $12/month. I really wish I could do the same and cut the strings; I'd probably save about $500 a year by going data-free.
Smartphones = hugephones. I would be much more amenable to switch from my creaky Env2, if there was an actual Android phone that fit into human-sized shirt pockets.
The second issue is more serious: $40 per month soaking for the 'data plan', for a phone that will mostly remain off during working hours per policy.
Apparently "Dead" means "still close to half the phones being sold", aka "doesn't want to go in the cart!" Sure, they aren't gettin' better, but they're not dead yet.
"Feature Phone" is a standard industry term - it means phones that do more than basic calling, and often have installable applications, but aren't based on the iPhone/Android touchscreen designs that have taken over the market and usually don't run general-purpose operating systems (except maybe Symbian.) Most of them either don't have web browsing, or have some crippled-HTML-substitute like WAP. They're usually smaller (remember when being the smallest phone you could get meant it was the fanciest and most expensive?), often have clamshell designs, sometimes keyboards, and actually fit in your pocket.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Have gnu, will travel.
it means phones that do more than basic calling, and often have installable applications, but aren't based on the iPhone/Android touchscreen designs
Ah! So Blackberrys then.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Most phone sellers will sell a few candy bar phones below that price for between €9.99 and €29 which are all very basic even by feature phone standards.
The regular cellphone is dead only in the bubble of tech la-la land where people can afford iPhones. Sure, if you live in that niche, you might not see cellphones, but normal people can't afford smartphones with Internet access. As long as there are normal people, the cellphone isn't going away.
I can't tell if some people really haven't heard these terms before or it's some deep sarcasm. Feature phone = your average dumb phone. The phone you had before you had a phone that you could download and run mobile-OS specific applications. Its "features" probably included a calculator, calendar, camera and built-in WAP browser (even if you never used it), and probably allowed you to download and run Java apps (even if you never did). It may have even had a built-in music player. No options to install a new browser or media player, though there were some decent Java apps, like language-translation dictionaries. Basic smart phone = budget Android phone or maybe something from the Nokia Asha line. We're already seeing Android phones in the $50 range. Most of us would consider them to be crap, but if you live in a developing country and you're coming from a dumb phone, just having something like GPS is a big step up, and probably all you can afford.
www.gaiageek.com
Most feature phones let you install j2me apps.
Unless your feature phone was for a carrier that used Qualcomm's CDMA2000 stack, in which case you were usually limited to BREW apps in your carrier's store. Adding other apps required becoming a registered developer, which cost money.
Would it make sense for someone to come out with a "dumb" phone that basically does everything a smart phone does, but instead of keeping everything stored on the phone (which can be confiscated and searched without a warrant) or on someone else's cloud (where it can be searched without a warrant... probably) it stores everything on a Home-based cloud server?
It would be able to do all the things that a smartphone does but basically act as a dumb terminal front end for the VPN connected server that the owner keeps at home (where it would require a warrant to search it). Instead of keeping pictures, contacts, web browsing information, etc. locally, you keep your data at home where it's safe. You could add biometrics to protect the connection and even build in geo-location so it wouldn't work in/out of certain areas. Seems like a no-brainer to avoid the hassle of data loss from theft, or ubiquitous surveillance and selective enforcement...
"Feature phones" (simplified cell phones with a few capabilities beyond simple dialing but nowhere near a smartphone from what I understand) definitely have their place. I know my first few phones were feature phones and they worked great for the basics, LOOOONNNNNGGG battery life, a week with my call load, minimum. They are pretty tough, dropped several in water, disassembled/dried them and they came back to life every time. And they were fairly cheap, often coming free with the service. I've finally switched up to a low end smart phone, but sometimes I miss not having to worry about every cup of water, slip of the fingers or car door slam on my pocket killing the +$100 mobile computer in my pocket.
I live in Slashdot's home country, and I've defined a feature phone as a phone that won't cause you to have to buy a data plan. The major U.S. CDMA2000 carriers (Verizon, Sprint, and Sprint-owned Boost and Virgin) refuse to on talk-and-text-only plans, and the U.S. GSM carrier with the best coverage (AT&T) will automatically add a data plan to a talk-and-text-only SIM if you insert it in a smartphone.
You could try a 7" 3G/4G tablet instead of a phone. You still get the data, just not voice and SMS. But good luck reaching someone who still has a land line.
You don't necessarily have to go "data-free". I use a pay as you go service, you can disable data at the service but why bother when you can leave it on but shutdown your phones use of mobile data networks (at least on Android). You can still use some of the features of the smartphone (email, calendar, internet, etc) when you're in range of an accessible Wi-Fi but don't pay through the nose to get it and you can still enable cell network data for short stints when you really need/want it. At least my service usually runs about $10-$13 a month (note: I don't have my head glued to the thing all the time, two or so calls a day). You still loose the battery life & durability of a "feature phone" but depending on your usage the trade off may be acceptable.
I have old Nokia cellphone (it only calls and texts), Galaxy Note WiFi tablet and old 3G USB cell modem. If I need portable data I use cell modem with my laptop, I then have an option to use laptop as a WiFi hotspot and connect to it. Free WiFi is everywhere, so I rarely have to use modem.
I understood what was meant: "A subscriber on this carrier is entitled to 5 GB of fast data and unmetered slow data in each month."
But I think BitZtream might be playing word games as a way to remind you that nothing is truly "unlimited". No computer is Turing complete because memory is bounded; at best they're linear bounded automata. There is no way to physically transfer "unlimited" information to a computer, even with a 10 Gbps Ethernet drop. And cutting a subscriber's speed to, say, 64 kbps is a substantial limit on how much the subscriber can transfer during a month. Assume 10 payload bits per byte to account for TCP/IP overhead, then 64×86400×30÷10÷1000000 = 16.5 GB if the subscriber leaves the phone running 24/7 after the fast data expires.
No matter how cheap or good the smartphone they make, I bet the battery on my feature phone will run circles around it.
Drops to the ground aren't a concern either, it's very well built.
Water? No problem. It'll handle an accidental submersion.
Extreme temperatures? It doesn't complain about it being too hot or too cold for it to work.
Regardless, even if they developed a ruggedized smartphone it would still lack the one feature that makes a feature phone worth carrying around: a battery life that doesn't require the constant worrying of making sure you charge the phone every 16 hours or else.....
"If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"
this is where the manufacturers use throttleware to get you to pay more for a phone by intentionally limeting the phones capabilities. I love my Galaxy Y when Im out so I dont need to lose my s2.
actually fit in your pocket
If you're a munchkin, sure. My 3GS (no case) fits neatly into the fob pocket of my Levis.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
The concept would definitely have advantages, but could also some drawbacks. I know for a time one network started down that path (Verizon) years ago with some of their "feature phones", a family members phone was basically a brick with a light & an hour glass when you didn't have service (disadvantage of course). I don't use mobile network data much either so I don't know about this aspect, what are the "ping" times (or other relevant data speed rating) on cell networks. I've been on a dumb terminal before (though it was back in 2003), even with decent hard wired Ethernet connections all the way to an in network server it was a little painful to wait for the screen refreshes sometimes. But if those issues could be overcome/mitigated I know I'd buy something similar.
> actually fit in your pocket
Then don't buy phablets. :-) I was surprised that my first iPhone was actually a bit shorter than the Nokia 6820 that it replaced, and only a bit wider. (And of course much thinner. iPhone, 115x61x11.6mm; Nokia, 119x55x23mm) It just looked like this giant flat thing, compared to the more evenly-proportioned Nokia, but was actually smaller overall. I remember being surprised when I actually put them down next to each other. The iPhone was also a bit heavier, too, because of all the glass, which also made it seem bigger before I directly compared them.
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Symbian was one of the original "smart" phones, really. As it had installable native apps and such. It's not as fancy, but it was pretty much the definition back then.
The nokia feature phones ran S40 or similar, which could only run java apps, and were much more simplified in general. (all the integral apps had much less features, etc).
Sent from my PDP-11
Since I rarely use the mobile phones (don't even own one) and rarely go out (always use Internet indoor), it would be nice to have a backup Internet connection for my computers. I just don't want to pay a lot for something I would use rarely (a few times per year) and do want fast speeds and very high caps (unlimited preferred). Hence why I still use dial-up for $9.95 per month that has e-mails, usenet (binaries too), plenty of POPs, etc.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Perhaps billstewart is a petite woman.
No. Blackberries aren't even good at making calls.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
It's AOL logic. At one point, AOL was mass-mailing "bisks" (install CDs) that came with "700 Free Hours!*" because that was more eye-catching than "First month's on us". I think BitZtream would consider AOL's offer more honest than "unlimited".
* Expires after 30 days
My phone is already set up for data at home, work, the coffee shop, several restaurants, and my kid's school. [...] All I'm using for data is mostly email and weather.
Is it set up to receive mail and weather while you ride transit to and from these places? Because the bus system in my home town doesn't provide Wi-Fi data.
I bought a Nexus 5, but after seeing how much radiation my wife's Nexus 5 put out -- more than a working microwave oven -- I sent it back and stuck with my old dumb phone. Excessive across-the-Internet-so-you-get-dosed "chatter" is the new spam.
I come here for the love
Unfortunately "signed by symbian" DRM meant you could not actually install the Apps. And Nokia is now owned by MS - so Feature phone is dead - but could be revived by anyone who actually wanted to.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Well, I think your power is failing, because Blu-ray is also failing.
i am NOT going to pay an extra 20-30 dollars a month for "data" on whatever "basic smartphone" replaces my "feature phone" that has but one feature -- it makes phone calls (imagine that)... and you know damn well the fucking carriers will charge extra for data just because it is a "smartphone", however "basic" it is; while conveniently ignoring the fact that they are (will be) forcing "feature phone" users over to the "basic smartphone"..... can you say "blatant cash grab"?
They intentionally keep smartphones expensive so only their kind can afford to own them. They use the racist term ObamaPhone to describe the piece of crap dumb phones that are the only one they allow minorities and the poor to use. They think they have the right to dictate what model of phone we give to people that are entitled to the government paying for their phones. It's inhumane. We should allow them to pick the model of phone they receive. Not doing so proves the Republicans do not care about the poor.
No, Blackberrys are their own special type. Namely, the type that's actually dead.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
The feature phone wont die in the USA as long as carriers require people to purchase an overpriced "Data Plan" for even the most basic smartphone product (carriers will even do deep packet analysis on your traffic and detect that you are using a smartphone even when its a phone they haven't even heard of, much less sold)
Ah! So Blackberrys then.
Actually, Windows phones.
The major corporate telco contracts have replaced the old Nokia candybar phones with Lumia 5 and 6 series devices as their basic free-on-plan phones. They're handing them out like confetti in our office, replacing the old Nokias and occasionally even Blackberries.
It's probably a good role for them - not quite as versatile as an Android, but cheap and robust.
My Nokia c.2007 called itself a "smartphone" but would be a "featurephone" these days. It ran S40.
My wife has an android touch screen phone (ICS) that cost under $40 outright, so they are definitely cheap these days.
--
no sig for you. come back one year.
revionist history, check phonescoop.com. that nokia has been smaller and lighter than all the iphones released.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
I've switched back to a feature phone after two smartphones -- the Palm Centro (I actually still miss its hard keyboard), and an HTC Incredible.
Reasons:
I've actually got some use for a decent tablet, but no real need for a phone data plan with wifi at the house and ready access most other places. Buying a separate tablet, rolling my own OS on it, and using that for some data + reading and apps makes sense. Possibly also VOIP when connected to data.
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
And maybe you'll find peace of mind.
Ignorance, bliss.
Bliss, ignorance.
"opening the road to socialist revolution"?
Roads are for the bourgeoisie scum, that perverts mans natural freedom.
Anyone using roads will be lined up and shot, when the TRUE revolution comes!
Sorry, I was off by one -- I had a 6800 first, then a 6820, then my iPhone, but the specs I posted were from the 6800, not the 6820. (Sorry for forgetting -- it's been 7 years.) The 6820 was indeed a bit shorter than narrower than the 6800 or iPhone, but still almost twice as thick as the iPhone.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I have the 840G and still use it as a backup phone. All I really needed to do to make it feel really functional was install Opera Mini and GMaps on it, both of which are installable java apps. The battery lasts forever, too.
Apparently "Dead" means "still close to half the phones being sold", aka "doesn't want to go in the cart!" Sure, they aren't gettin' better, but they're not dead yet.
"Feature Phone" is a standard industry term - it means phones that do more than basic calling, and often have installable applications, but aren't based on the iPhone/Android touchscreen designs that have taken over the market and usually don't run general-purpose operating systems (except maybe Symbian.) Most of them either don't have web browsing, or have some crippled-HTML-substitute like WAP. They're usually smaller (remember when being the smallest phone you could get meant it was the fanciest and most expensive?), often have clamshell designs, sometimes keyboards, and actually fit in your pocket.
Here is how I handle my personal needs. I bought a $30.00 phone and took a basic North American calling, unlimited talk, and texting, for $25/mo. The phone is small, and fits in my shirt pocket, sharing the space with my eyeglass space.
When I need something special, I ask the man on the street if I can use his phone. What is special? Skype or high resolution camera. I don't eat and text at the same time. And if I lose the phone or it drops and breaks, I can buy another.
Do I need audio memos, tango, web browser and data plan? Nope. I have a tablet for those things and I can do what I need to do at the local coffee shop or fast food or mall food court.
And my phone has real buttons, not the touch keypad. Life without the Galaxy 5 that I gave away is great, because I have gained freedom.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
The one remaining advantage of non-smartphones is battery life. Smartphones are fine for people who have regular access to electric power and can plug them in every night, but are unsuitable for locations where access to power is unreliable. A small niche should remain for a bit longer, though whether it will be enough to keep those phones in production remains to be seen.