I have not been able to find many true dumb-phones. Most of the "dumb phones" are running Android and just hide most of the UI. A proper dumb phone would only have enough firmware and OS to make calls and text, maybe a very rudimentary calculator. AFAIK most of those are gone or depend on networks that have long since been shut down such as GSM in most places. With the engineering firmware they could display what cell site one was on along with the signal strength of each sector. That and the basic GSM spec was about it.
For most people, the point is to have limited functionality. They could care less what the underlying operating system is. The companies developing the phones are most likely concerned about the development costs, since it is probably a safe bet that the market is so small that saving a few dollars per unit on manufacturing would not amount to much. In other words, they don't care about the operating system either.
For most people, the point is to have limited functionality. They could care less what the underlying operating system is.
I believe it. In this case instead of dumb phone it should be called minimized UI phone. I believe that saying it is a dumb phone is disingenuous as some will believe the Google tracking isn't there. If they entirely de-googled the phone they could call it a de-googled mini-UI phone. A proper dumb phone could run on standby for weeks especially with modern batteries and would not be dialing home to the Google mother ship or any other third parties. The original dumb phones could boot up in milliseconds not counting network negotiation time. FWIW some of us old timers do care what the OS and firmware are doing and just want a phone that does it's job of being a phone. I acknowledge that the SS7 network needed to be deprecated and replaced ages ago but Google and Apple are not what I had in mind. RCS should have been the job of wireless providers in my opinion given so much data already goes to them such as real time spell check.
> A proper dumb phone would only have enough firmware and OS to make calls and text, maybe a very rudimentary calculator.
It's that "maybe a very rudimentary calculator" part that would be the problem with trying to sell a dumb phone nowadays, I think. For some people calls, text, and a simple calculator would be perfect. For others though it would be calls, text, and a music player. Others would want calls, text, and a camera.
Back in the dumb phone days I would take some subset of these devices with me when I went out for the day:
• Calculator
• Music player
• Palm Pilot
• Camera
• GPS
I think a "dumb" phone would have to include most or all of those to really be commercially viable, although maybe the maker could make it work if they had several different models each with just a couple of those.
I get what you are saying but the reason I mention calculator is that unless the internet has been completely compromised or enshittified, a calculator will not be tied to some distraction and tracking platform or service.
What I knew as a camera or music player only managed local files and was not internet enabled. Most today know a music player as a streaming client. If the internet went down most of them would not have any music at all. They also expect their camera can instantly share their photos with everyone via some big platform and AI or other algorithms will make suggestions or try to add captions. I still use cameras and music players that do not have network capabilities. I even have a physical calculator.
I think the overall goal is to remove distractions. For me it is also to stop AI and related psychological tools from becoming that embedded in my life. At some point I will just stop using a cell phone all together and I know I am not alone. Maybe alone here on HN but not alone outside of this chamber.
People don't realise this. new phones are just running optimised android, with UI workarounds as opposed to the super optimised systems that old nokias used to run.
