www.activistpost.com/2022/03/dumbphone-sales-are-soaring-as-people-revolt-against-overwhelming-smartphones.html
Dumbphone Sales Are Soaring As People Revolt Against “Overwhelming” Smartphones
Rule XWhat the fuck is this bullshit source? It "cites" a BBC article as a source, but the whole article is copy pasted from that one source. And the author's name is Tyler Durden, the guy from Fight Club. Sounds like a preteen edgelord.
Here, read the article from the actual author, don't give this trash website clicks https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168
Anyone who believes this source deserves a dumbphone.
Right. They are lawn dart stupid.
So the source is zerohedge? Yikes.
Oh no, not the heckin hedgerinos, that's, like, so toxic and problematic????? I'm gonna go updoot some wholesome Keanus to cheer myself up.
I don’t think you know much about zerohedge. It’s basically fixed income traders meet alt right nazis.
That sounds pretty based, ngl
I have a hard time believing that sales are soaring. And that almost a billion people have bought these.
Drug dealers quite literally NEED these phones so i can see that number being correct, especially when you think of their price.
The drug dealers on my block literally never use anything but smartphones.
They must be doing pretty good if they can afford to just bin a smart phone if the heat is on or they are dumb af and wont last long.
🤡
VPN + end to end encryption, no need for an extra phone however paranoid you are, also the police these days don’t do anything anyway
Seriously. Unless you're being tracked by the DEA or homeland, your average Barney Fife cop isn't going to get anything from your phone
Just got a flip phone for 90 years-old FIL. Surprise - Flip phones are the same or higher cost than a cheap smart phone. Probably because Smart phones have some subsidy due to ads, app placement, etc.
Tell me you've never sold drugs, without telling me you've never sold drugs.
Probably stolen anyway.
You don't really understand what you're making an assumption about.
You kids live in a 90s sitcom it’s so strange. 99% of drug dealers aren’t raising any type of suspicion that warrants getting their phone tapped and messages pulled by authority and even if they do there’s the signal app.
The same kids who believe eating a slice of pizza left out overnight will kill you, the police will bust down your door if you torrent, and everyone besides them is a narcissist and a sociopath.
That sounds exactly like something a narcissistic psychopath would say!
Also older people who need a phone but don't need and don't understand smart phones. Or parents who want to make sure young kids have a way to reach them in an emergency but aren't ready for a smartphone yet.
Yeah but the UX on these phones are terrible too. I’m dealing with this for my 91 yr old dad now. I wish you could get an overlay on an android or apple that simplifies and magnifies
I thought u could. Pretty sure my android has a simpler big button mode specifically for situations like this. Should be under Accessibility in settings. Unless I misunderstood you.
I went to check and it's under display, called easy mode. Though it's not exactly what I was thinking
It doesn’t matter how simple you make the ux if the person has no interest in trying. The buttons for email is literally a picture of mail and my grandma still asks me where it is all the time.
People give their babies smart phones now a days dude
Some do, yes. Doesn't mean they should. I'm not here to criticize anyone else's parenting but when my wife and I have kids they are getting a flip phone with basic calls and text, no data, long before they get a smartphone.
Then they won't be as competitive as other kids in the modern world. The reason I'm so successful today is because I got into gaming so early. Developed a passion for it. And now am a software developer.
A smart phone is how people communicate, do jobs, get jobs. It's an essential work force skill
I'm not saying never give them a smartphone but I think there's an in-between stage when kids start going out and playing without supervision, riding bikes around the neighborhood, going to friend's houses, etc where they need a way to communicate in an emergency but absolutely do not need a smartphone specifically.
I'm talking like 6-12 or something. As a teenager where they start to socialize and go out more and really start developing their interests before they go out in the world I can understand giving them a smartphone.
Edit: and you can have a tablet or something around the house for games but they don't need to be glued to it 24/7 and have it everywhere they go
Might be cheaper to get them one of those kid phone watch things at first. It's locked to an app on your phone so you can check its location, and you can program up to 10 quick dial contacts in it for emergencies. It can't call anyone but those 10 people, and they're usually half the price of a phone line. Could save you some extra cash until they're old enough for a real phone. Plus that way, they already have a phone number, and you just have to upgrade instead of activating a new line.
Edit: they're called Gizmo watches
Maybe, I'd want them to be able to call or text their friends though. I want them to have a social life but not social media and stuff. I just don't think it's a good idea to let kids run around unsupervised on the internet in those early years.
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2.1y
What's obvious to you or me is not obvious to someone who didn't grow up with the technology. I find it hard to believe you've never known or heard of elderly people struggling with modern technology like computers and smartphones.
Bad take.
Maybe the big time dealers but your average Joe dealing low weights are using their regular phone. I’ve known some drug dealers in my life time and none of them went out and got another phone as a burner. And I would bet money there’s not a Billion big time drug dealers using burner phones.
Ive known people to use them for literally one phone call then bin the phone do another call bin again continue.
Why would a drug dealer need a dumbphone? They buy them so they can throw them away on a whim and so they can recharge them with cash anonymously, which you can do with a smartphone.
Smart phones cost more money. Dumb phones cost hardly anything.
That doesn't explain why they NEED a dumbphone, as you put it.
Maybe they meant "quite literally" literally, as in sort of literally.
Drug dealers use cryptophones, not dumbphones
No they don’t what they fuck are you talking about
I sell in a largely elderly, rural community so my metric might be skewed but if there's any reason for a recent uptick it's a lot of companies finally putting out the ultimatum to change that phone you've had for 15+ years because it's no longer going to be supported at all. As far as half a billion, sounds pretty inflated for sure but there's a not insignificant number of people out there using these dumbphones.
Yup. Just had to help my grandparents activate two new flip phones because their old ones were 3G and being booted off the network. I imagine that happened quite a lot in the last year or two.
In 2020, smartphone vendors sold around 1.38 billion smartphones were sold worldwide. In
I did a project for phone detection technology in prisons and high-risk test taking (i.e., career placement tests in Asian countries).
These phones are a favorite of prison inmates. Much harderer to detect since there are less location services and they can remove the battery.
Given how cheap they can be, I'd imagine they're very common in south and east asia, africa, russia
can anyone confirm their dumb phones work? i thought the big carriers all shut down their 2g a loooooong time ago. they are slowing shutting down their 3g. so unless your dumb phone works on 4g network, i doubt this article.
These dumb phones still come with a 3g and/or 4g modem.
Depends where you are. In Europe, 2G is going to outlast 3G in large part because of all the issues that happened in the States when they shut off their 2G networks. Lots of devices such as fall alarms in elderly people's homes, OT devices etc use 2G for comms. The UK smart meter network uses 2/3G in Wales, central England and South England. The natural replacement for those devices is to use the IoT band of 5G but that's not even started implementation from a lot of carriers so I doubt most of the shut off dates in Europe are going to be stuck to.
However, you can buy 4G dumb phones and it's the sale of those phones that has been increasing. But they're still a niche product without widespread use.
All of these 4G dumbphones are worse than my old Nokia C5-00. GPS with navigation and maps and sports tracking, app stores, IM clients, front and rear cameras (video calls), multitasking, radio, YouTube, SD card expansion for photos/videos/games. Some models of the era even had Wi-Fi. In all respects those 2009 phones are still better options than buying a new Nokia.
edit: Add 3.5G to the list. Perfectly usable.
Yeah they definitely still work, at least in the UK but I think we still have all our 2G, Edge, 3G, etc intact
3g is dead in our country while some countries still use 3g for some devices. Most new dumb phone from nokia. I do wish if apple make one , i bought . We just need basic whatsapp , imessage some facebook and reddit . kinda enough for me.
"Sales Are Soaring"
Then the article goes on to highlight how one teenager is an "anomaly" among their peers because they don't own a smartphone.
Headlines.
Or, teenagers aren’t the only phone demographic.
Way to tell on yourself though
Even if you have a smartphone, using all those apps & features isn't mandatory.
And an alcoholic doesn’t have to have a drink from the bottle in the cupboard. The average person has poor self-control and ends up less happy and healthy for it. Just think of all those people who “quit” social media. They’re usually back a week later. Sometimes it’s easier to just get rid of the bottle.
The article seems very specious...
- The source for the claim is from 2019. and it uses phrasing like "will be sold". So these soaring sells were a projection.
- The source says the vast majority of these sales are going to 3rd world countries. So it's not people revolting against smart phones. It's people who can only afford the cheapest phones.
- The source also says these "dumbphones" can "[have] a chipset and an operating system that can support sophisticated smartphone-like features".
I went for 40 years quite happily without having to know exactly when my neighbour was baking cookies. Life was a lot simpler then.
You can just not use social media. It works great. Also I'm pretty sure all smartphones today have some level of "do not disturb" and other tools to make your phone less invasive in your life. Facebook is a cancer, but we have options.
Reddit is also cancer, you know. Don’t get me wrong, I got off Facebook too, years ago, but this shit’s also terrible for you.
I know. I try to minimize my time spent here, and what time I do spend is productive. Harm reduction.
And you are posting this from your smartphone, right?
Still using their free time off an AOL CD ROM.
My comment was supposed to be mildly humorous.
What the hell does that have to do with smartphones?
Social media.
Smartphone =/= social media
I know. But that’s what op implied.
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2.1y
My comment was supposed to be mildly humorous .
I rocked the Alcatel MyFlip a few years back and can tell you they are rather "smart". You can browse internet, check emails, click links, YouTube, and it was a Hotspot. Can still do all basic smartphone functions.
Less social media for everyone is a good thing.
I’ve been using an iPhone for 10 years, and a Blackberry for 4 or 5 before that. The best sounding call quality I had was my old Motorola Razr (although the last few gens of iPhone have been really really good too). I barely knew it was in my pocket too.
Maybe stop buying EVERY year…smartphones last for 3 years at its best, 4 - 6 years with slight charging issues. My first smartphone was 5s(lasted 6 years before I wanted an upgrade. And currently I have the 8plus, with slight lighting port issue that isn’t an issue if I don’t move it while in use.
The article was written by Tyler Durden
I work at AT&T and we just shut down the 3g network causing all the old flip phones to shut down. So the only real flip phone sales we’ve been doing is the elderly making sure they can still use their phone when the 3g towers are off.
Downvote and move on. It’s a bullshit “article”.
It’s absolute bullshit that an appealing dumb phone doesn’t exist. To find a phone that calls AND texts in a way that feels modern is unavailable. How? How can there not be a dumb phone with a user-friendly, touch screen QWERTY keyboard? I’ll pay for it. Every dumb phone makes texting an arduous task and that makes the whole genre unusable. It’s such a shame it feels intentional.
I know for a fact people are buying them because one of my anti-VAX clients tried to get me to do it with her and all her like minded friends. I run a business. As much as I hate the digital leash it’s a necessity.
These flip phones are great for teenagers who can’t follow phone rules. My daughter kept having her phone taken away for inappropriate photos and texts. I finally had it shut off and got her a flip phone. 8 months of a flip phone and when she got her smart phone back she was very eager to keep her attitude in check and follow phone rules. Plus she was too embarrassed to pull the flip phone out in school so it helped there too. LOL
More bullshite articles on reddit designed to divide. More and more - Reddit is divisive like Fb.
This is more bullshit along with the digital detox movement that is also bullshit. Learn self control friends!
Wouldn't surprise me. I've owned a few smartphones in the past and they are just too much of a faff. Gotta charge the battery all the time, gotta keep the software updated, gotta comb thru privacy settings after each update since software suppliers want to get all your data and hence turn everything back on after each update.
Old people and drug dealers are the only people that buy these.
my wife’s iphone will not ring if her iwatch is near by on on her wrist smartphone notso smart
Who's "people"? 80-year olds?
Well i’m 28 . I think the millennials who are against extreme hyper connectivity & conglomeration of tech were always ignored.
I’ve pretty much started buying everything that used to be separate from a phone because this shit is a mental cancer. All i need a phone for is text, calling, and gps. I don’t like the endless scrolling, always “ checking “ my phone, or the expectation to always be available. Shit my writing skills took an extreme downgrade because of spell check.
Once you stop being on this phone all the time you are essentially a social alien but my mental health is dramatically better
That just sounds like you have a problem.
It’s more strange of you not to acknowledge the negative effects of smartphones.
That's because it's not the negative effects of smartphones.
Smartphones are a tool.
That's like saying a drug addict's problem is the drugs, not themselves.
Too bad you sound like a tool too.
Nice argument 👍
https://www.psychalive.org/cell-phone-addiction/
https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/phone-addiction/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6449671/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30501032/
This is and has been an acknowledged , openly discussed phenomena.
Lol, bs
Isn't going to affect phone companies in the least, If this trend keeps up, you'll be paying 1000 for a dumb home with less features and capabilities and still paying some dumbass made up fees that equal the amount you are paying now. We all jonesing for the drug now and can't go back
Ok boomer
My parents insisted that smart phones were bad for years. They had the same flip phone that didn't hold a charge since like 2005 (if they had to take a call they would charge it a couple hours before and mostly used their home phone. But that was fine cuz they only paid like $20 bucks a month 9_9. If you think it was frustrating as hell for their kids to try and get ahold of them ever, you would be right. There's a reason we all secretly listed each other as our emergency contacts instead of them.) Anyway, support for their old model flip phone just got discontinued, so they each got a smart phone a couple of weeks ago and they love them. I've had to be tech support cuz I live the closest, but I think they are mostly used to them now.
Lol that's basically the same situation i had with my parents.
Maybe burners, but nobody is giving up a smartphone for this.
Kept my blackberry around for this purpose to take breaks from IPhone. However Verizon discontinues support for most of these old models.
I have a good dumb phone!!!
I would think there’s a significant market for a software (hardware?)company to make an overlay to a smartphone that totally simplifies and magnifies.
I’m going through this with my 91 yr old dad. His flip phone died and was too difficult for him anyways: small keys, small screen, questionable UI. Going to a smartphone would be way too much for him.
The Apple Dumbphone 5
Just give me back my Razr V2!
Ok boomer
"activist post" yes. Such high quality news outlets...
Yeah right.
You can still do an amazing amount with a dumb phone. I had a Motorola V3 XX. I used to read on it (text files), surf the web, get email on the web, listen to music (mp3s). All of this on a three and a half inch screen. And of course you can get text messages too.
We have come full circle......
No they arent
Recently saw an Aziz Ansari special where he talks about the same thing. He even pulls out his old busted flip phone at the end lol.
Honestly I just need a phone that plays music, does gps and texts.
I would so have an old Nokia phone. You know simple black square thing. Played that damn snake game till I wore out the print. Those things were almost indestructible. If it wasn't for needing a smart phone for work I could slide back to a dumb phone.
Why? You like talking on the phone?
“Tyler Durden” writing in Activist Post. This seems like a bullshit source.
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