The Hottest Phones For the Next Billion Users Aren't Smartphones

'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.'

-- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/2317234

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
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