Microsoft: Just what the world needs – a $25 Nokia dumbphone Microsoft's Nokia division has revealed its latest mobile phone – but rather than the sort of high-end flagship number that's designed to take on Apple, it's taking aim squarely at the bottom of the market. It's no less than a plastic mini-mobe that will sell for no more than €19 ($25) before taxes and subsidies. Billed in …
I had a Nokia 5310, it was a great phone and fantastically thin. I would have bought another when it died, but I judged it too expensive for an old phone that did have a few limitations.
Instead I replaced it with a Nokia C1-01 pretty much the same features but thicker and only £20.
When my current phone dies I might look at this new Nokia 130.
Let's not forget the Motorola ROKR, not matter how much Motorola and Apple might like us to. There were quite a few MP3 apps for Series 60 phones too, so you could rehabilitate your old Nokia 7650 if you really wanted. It's a slider though, so I guess something a little later like the 6600 would be more relevant?
Except it's 2G only and in some countries operators can change existing 2G spectrum to 3G use with only 6 months notice to regulator.
There are cheap phones sold even in Europe that are similar, but without the video (pointless?) and MP3 (definitely needed). Sadly they are all 2G only.
My wife has a cheap Samsung flip phone that, with tax, is €24, and, while it isn't an mp3 player, does an adequate job. Is this pitched as a phone or a cheap mp3 player? I'm not sure that this will convince anyone to buy it, especially as you have to provide your own sd card.
Additionally, from my experience, the earphones provided by nokia stink. I have ones that came with my considerably more expensive lumia that stink - tinny as hell and uncomfortable. I doubt if they have provided any better with this.
Lost all faith,
I'm pretty sure it's true. Part of the deal was that MS licenced Nokia's patents for 10 years or so, and the name for 2 years I think. They only get to keep the Lumia brand permanently, and so will have to change over to that.
This gives Nokia the ability to go back to producing phones in future, should they choose to. Although I can't see why they'd bother, having only just managed to dump their phone division.
MS bought Nokia because no one was buying WinPhones. Kids use smartphones & tablets in preference to a laptop/pc. MS realise the next generation of IT users/buyers will be smartphone/tablet users. Most PhartSmones and Tablets are either IOS(Apple) or Android(Google).
ARM is moving into the commercial server space and domestic IT (read smart TVs) and with ARM usually comes Linux in the form of Android.
So not only is MS not getting a seat at the Tablet/SmartPhone party, but (more importantly to MS) they see that the future IT-buying-decision-makers have all been brought up (from childhood) with non-MS tech. So why would they buy Windows when Android/Linux/IOS is already familiar and plenty good enough.
MS _HAD_ to buy Nokia or risk becoming a distant memory in 5 or 10 years time - that may still happen if kids continue to not buy Nokia WinPhones. So - if you are concerned about the future of IT in its present Wintel form, buy your 2 year old a Win8 Tablet ;-)
Look at Whackypedia or the news articles at the time of the sale. It's all very well thought out, on Nokia Oyj's behalf - MS have till the end of 2015 to drop Nokia from their Windows Phone and Asha ranges so they'll be stuck with selling Microsoft Lumias or just Lumias. Meanwhile they can carry on with the dumbphone business for 10 years but they must keep the Nokia name, ready for Nokia Oyj to pick it back up where they left off if they want to.
Normally I'd be livid to be singled out in such a patronising way if I'd been born in one of these countries. However this actually looks like something I'd snap up in an instant because of its' "who cares if it gets lost or nicked at this price" virtues. Having commuted with a tablet that I would seriously mind losing for a good while now, but is used for 95% as an expensive MP3 player I'd be straight down to the shops to snap one of these up at this price. So, more sales lost to you MS.....
"because of its' "who cares if it gets lost or nicked at this price" virtues."
It may not seem quite that cheap to the potential customers in the target markets. Yeah, a few quid here and there means nothing to us rich westerners, but in many cases, the target market are people where that may mean a week or a months wages. Would you treat a phone costing that much as a throwaway?
I doubt that it would last long if you use it as a music player; driving the earpieces will use lots of battery charge. Similarly, using it as a phone but not even making calls would drain the battery, probably within a week or maybe two if you're lucky.
My smartphones have always lasted about 5 days between charges (HTC Wildfire then Incredible and now a Nexus 4). I have WiFi on all day at home but I don't make many calls and I don't use GPS or Bluetooth and I don't play music on it and I hardly ever use mobile data. I also put it in airplane mode when I go to bed. I can only assume that you do all those things all at the same time.
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I use it mostly as a miniature tablet, mainly via WiFi. On walks and visits I use the camera and then the installed FTP client can shovel the pictures to my home networked FTP server. It has Dropbox and GDrive clients installed on in and an email client and a GoogleCalendar app. It's amazing what a modern smart'phone' can do.
This is the perfect phone for NURSERY WORKERS.
Following all the paranoia from certain sex abuse cases, we arent allowed to have our phones switched on at work - in case we take abusive photos of the kiddies; so a camera-less phone like this would be ideal for being contactable in a family emergency.
(The landline is a no-no as the manager is always hogging it)
Mines the one with crayon on the back, and baby-sick on the shoulder.
What is the perfect phone to bludgeon to death the people at the Daily Mail and the like who have created poisonous paranoia around anybody who works with children, when the evidence is that the offenders seem far more often to be people in authority, or celebrities? (And yes, I have enhanced DBS certificates.)
I'd nominate my first ever Nokia, which would have made a handy club if there had been phone thieves in those days.
If I even thought of giving a PoS like this to my kids I'd probably find I had just been reported to Social Services for abuse and neglect soon after they had opened the box. Have no problem with the Bill Gates Fan Club buying whatever they want - just don't expect me to buy the sort of garbage Microsoft are outputting these days.
there probably still is more J2M Software out there than software written for Windows Phone.
Not so sure about that these days. In any case the Windows Phone software is likely to be more useful and usable: less limiting environment. So it is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.
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