Good call
If Mims can sell a mil’ sayin’ nothin’ on the track, then this Nokia cell phone is destined for success.
Nokia braved the iPhone and Razr 2 craze to announce its “3109 classic.”
It’s the exact opposite of the type of phone that the tech-savvy type are eager to have, with no 3G, no camera, and basically no nothing. The thing’s basically a few ounces of pure phoneness. And, at least on paper, it looks like it’s pretty good at being a basic phone: good battery life and durability, and a Nokia interface that’s renowned for its intuitive structure and ease of use.
I applaud Nokia for announcing such a phone. I certainly wouldn’t want one, but that’s beside the point — this phone clearly appeals to those who prefer simplicity, and there are probably more people preferring simplicity than you’d think.
Just last summer when I was in a Cingular store looking for the most feature-packed free phone I could find, I heard some guy ask a sales rep what their most basic phone was. He said he wanted a phone just to make calls and nothing else.
Sometimes, simplicity can be good. Generally speaking, when a gadget tries to do too many different things, it can’t do any of them particularly well. (There’s even an expression for that.)
But really, when it comes to cell phones, some people (probably excluding most teenagers) just don’t need or want “fancy” features like a full-fledged music player, full Web browsing capabilities, or “even” a camera. From what I’ve heard, some businesses don’t even let employees bring in a camera phone, for security reasons. If anything, fewer features on a cell phone means fewer settings to accidentally screw up.
Good call, Nokia.
— Jason He