“Dumbphones are on their way back”

The major smartphone companies will need to consider a new competitor, the “dumbphone”. These have fewer capabilities, but their sales have skyrocketed over the past few months.

Low price, long battery life

The “dumb” phones perform particularly well in the emerging markets. For instance, second quarter sales in Africa grew 32 % as opposed to a 5.2 % smartphone sales drop. Experts say that surge will continue for quite some time, thanks to the dumbphones’ low price. On average, a smartphone costs 240 euro, a lot more than the 18 euro for an average dumbphone. Even the incredibly popular Nokia 3310, which will soon return to the market, is at the more expensive end of the dumbphone scale, at 49 euro.

Pricing is not the only reason why the consumers in emerging markets love these devices, because their battery life is also very appealing. With fewer functions, they do not require as much energy and therefore last longer. A short battery life is already one of the smartphones’ major issues and even more so in countries where electricity is not as readily available.

Interesting features

However, the dumbphone manufacturers have managed to implement several interesting features: one manufacturer is working on a phone that lets you call others for free thanks to mobile internet. Price? 20 euro. Another reason why these dumbphones have become more popular is that people can now use text message-focused payment services, which are incredibly popular in emerging markets.

Expects now believe that smartphone manufacturers may struggle to handle these simpler models, particularly in the emerging markets. They will be forced to adapt and create their own type of dumbphone, eliminating features that serve little to no purpose, in order to compete.