4 ms·

I consider myself an Apple tech fan (have an iPod touch and iPad myself, just not the phone), but I really do think there should be more of these kinds of devic

I consider myself an Apple tech fan (have an iPod touch and iPad myself, just not the phone), but I really do think there should be more of these kinds of devices in the first world, as well as the third. Apple’s first gen iPhone was a sort of return to Apple’s roots regarding simplicity, with limited functionality and easy usability, but the uproar over the whole “web app, no native app” concept Steve tried to push initially caused Apple to change course to an App Store model. There are a few companies trying to sell “minimum viable” cellphones in the States, but you don’t hear all that much about them… http://www.jitterbug.com/ http://www.jitterbug.com/

sprout 16y ago
I think the focus on keypads is a mistake. I'd love a phone roughly like the OP's phone, except with a full range of characters and a largish keyboard. I don't think there's a lot of reason the phone needs to be so small either. I would bet you could make a Droid X sized phone, but lighter, with a nice hardware keyboard and great shock adsorption for about the cost of the OP phone. The fact that 'minimum viable' lacks texting is the result of price-fixing on the part of American carriers, not an intrinsic faculty of mobile devices.