Jolla Feature Phone

answered 2015-08-21 11:28:44 +0300

bilgy_no1
7008 ●55 ●100 ●104

Well, the market for dumbphones is shrinking rapidly, and main reason is customer demand.

Nokia were still selling tens of millions of feature phones, but according to the latest Microsoft reports this is also in decline. In most Western countries, a vast majority of people now use smartphones. In The Netherlands already in 2013, 72% of people used a smartphone! This will only have increased since then. It is safe to assume that the people who are still on feature phones are not very likely to buy a high end feature phone (~€100) instead of a cheap €25 model.

In the developing nations, this process is lagging a little bit. But most customers will aspire to have a smartphone instead of a feature phone. S40 phones (Nokia) were still selling strongly until recently, but this is changing. Reasons are two fold: 1) growing middle and upper classes in those countries; 2) more and better smartphones available at lower prices (Nokia Lumia 4xx/5xx series, Motorola, Huawei, but also Firefox aiming at a $35 smartphone, Google One now rolling out throughout India etc).

If you want a really long battery life, what you can do is turn off the mobile data connections, WiFi and Bluetooth. You basically end up with feature phone connectivity, and battery life will improve dramatically. Not up to a month, but definitely 4-5 days is possible on the Jolla (I've experienced this on holidays when I turn mobile data off).

It should also be possible to make a 'dumbed down' interface (i.e. B/W interface, special homescreen with dialpad and not much else, etc.). Some Android phones resort to such an interface in low-battery situations.

answered 2015-08-21 07:32:05 +0300

Ghost
1316 ●42 ●59 ●64

updated 2015-08-21 16:00:10 +0300

Yeah it is a better idea to implement ........ A sturdy black and white touch phone that woul be as useful as the nokia 1100.. with additional features that could be incorporated and have a wide range of acceptence rather than having to spend a lot in wanting a phone that would be in a beta state..

1) this could be money raiser where jolla employees can build a flawless OS 2) this could be a revolutionary phone as the nokia 1100.

Basic functionalities like Phone calls Messaging Calender Calculator Clock-Alarm-stopwatch-timer music player Etc......

All these could be have a basic black and white phone which doesnt use any color... this phone could have the incorporation of the e-ink technonlogy. which is a real battery saver and could have a wide variety of effect among the users

answered 2015-08-22 06:43:19 +0300

arjwright
3038 ●20 ●30 ●36

http://antoinerjwright.co...

I get the item posed, and to some extent agree with the answers. But, if Jolla were to build a feature phone - or something like it - I would rather they went towards form factors a bit more unique. For example:

• watches (think Samsung Gear S
• credit card shaped (there was an LG device like this a half decade ago)
• and if the UI supported navigation by voice, an ear-piece driven device that worked as a driver to (perhaps) the Jolla Tablet

Feature phones have a distinct appeal because they more or less are there when needed, fade to the background when they aren't, and are consciously bulletproof - they don't require much in the way of thinking to get it setup, used, fixed, and sometimes customized.

But, as a previous answer stated, the market for feature phones is falling quickly. For the market that is there, SailfishOS has not proven to be so inexpensive a proposition that it makes more sense than the (carrier data plan packaging) cheap Android device. Its probably a concession to say that any necessary mobile worth developing needs to be a smartphone of some kind; but current trends in sales point towards that concession as being the right way to frame whether a feature phone is a smart run.

I do think alternate form factor mobiles aren't explored enough. And I assume (because I've lived w/my Gear S as my main mobile for the past few months) that SailfishOS could probably do ok on that platform. But, the audial aspects need much more improvement to make that real; as does connecting to services that make/break some apps on other smartphone platforms (notification center, workflow agents like IFTTT, etc.). Its doable. But, not much time to wait for the pace of current development to make it happen. SailfishOS needs to mature quick to make such a device prospect viable before the next shift is plainly noted.