Dumb phones come back to life

17-year-old Robin West uses a simple phone with limited functionality compared to her peers who use modern phones such as the iPhone. French Mobiwire.

"Before I had a rudimentary phone, I didn't notice how the smartphone was in control of my life," West said.

She added that she does not think that she will ever buy another smartphone, as she is happy with her primitive phone, especially as she has become more active.

The return of "dumb phones"

According to BBC Arabic, “dumb phones” are simple and have greatly limited functionality compared to iPhone phones, for example, as most of them only enable you to make a phone call or send text messages.

These phones came back to life some time ago, as searches for them on Google jumped by 89 percent between 2018 and 2021, according to software company SEMRush.

A report expected that the number of “dumb phones” that were sold around the world last year would reach one billion, compared to 400 million in 2019. This compares to international sales of smartphones that amounted to 1.4 billion devices last year, following a decrease of 12.5 percent. year 2020.

A study conducted by the accounting group Deloitte in 2021 showed that one in 10 mobile phone users had a "dumb phone".

"It seems that fashion, nostalgia, and the appearance of stupid phones in videos on TikTok have contributed to its revival," said mobile phone expert at price comparison site Uswitch.com, Ernest Duque.. Many of us had a stupid phone as the first phone We bought a laptop, so it's only natural that we feel a bit nostalgic about those classics."

Doku said it was the relaunch of the "Nokia 3310" phone in 2017 that ignited that renaissance.

He continued, "Nokia has marketed the 3310 as an affordable alternative in a world teeming with high-tech mobile phones.

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