this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Doubt.

Haven't seen a flip phone in use in ages and I work among the public. Even the barely functional elderly on smartphones.

Who paid for this article? What's their angle?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Isn't the angle just to sound interesting/controversial/unbelievable so people click and see your ads? You know, clickbait?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is one job I'm glad AI is taking over.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Just the other day I saw an article with the exact opposite headline about how Gen z is sticking with the iPhone. Now I don't know which one is full of shit; but it's obviously one of them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Playing_both_sides.jpg

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It was about how Gen Z are rejecting "droids" in favor of iPhones

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I though genZ only bought iPhone because of the green bubble or something?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That was never true to begin with

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This same BS headline happens every generation. As soon as any small trends form, the media latch onto it like it's gonna be the next big thing...

No, feature phones aren't gaining mass adoption again. No, feature phones aren't going to kill smartphones. It's just a subset of people deciding to downgrade, or who want to buy a secondary phone.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Soon hipsters will be carrying wireless rotary phones.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a thing that isn't happening, at least not among Gen Z. What a bullshit article.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a millennial, the thought of ditching my smartphone is a thought that keeps coming up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I did it for 3 months. I really enjoyed my time doing it and learned a lot about my usage. It was a cheap $50 experiment. After I went back to my smartphone, I uninstalled ALL social media apps. Turned off ALL notifications but left calls and messages as an exception. My smartphone is now essentially a feature phone. It's not 100% the same since the big screen does lure you in to use it but my usage is still way down and because I don't have any social media there's no reason for me to be on my phone around other people. I wholeheartedly recommend trying it for those curious.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That reminded me how a local wanna-be influencer did a smartphone detox for a week, immediately after the completion she posted an FB story: Part 1 - Reflection, how eyeopening the experience was, how much time she suddenly had for the things that truly matter etc. Subscribe to not miss the Part 2!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No they don't. What a rubbish clickbait article.

All they say is that there's a (niche) trend of a few people using feature phones with expected combined sales of $2.8 million. Versus the $200 billions of iPhones alone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They weren't entirely wrong. The numbers don't lie. They just don't say what the author claims it does.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's directly in the headline: Gen Z is ditching the iPhone. That's incorrect in two ways: A) it's at best one in fifty people buying aforementioned feature phones and B) they don't even know if all buyers replace their existing phone or buy it as an additional handset.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had a biz partner who is a centimillionaire. He has an iPhone for data, and a flip-phone for calls.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I will now tell people I have a millionaire's phone plan.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have both a smartphone and a flip phone.

I kept both because the flip phone lets me make phone calls from my basement and many other places that the smartphone cannot.

I have never met anyone else with this setup.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the flip phone lets me make phone calls from my basement and many other places that the smartphone cannot.

Why? The smartphone supports everything the flip phone does. Honest question.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess the radio is a bit more efficient

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Doesn't seem very likely to me given that cheap feature phones likely use cheap older parts while flagship smartphones state of the art components.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

He didn't say his flip phone was cheap

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know what to tell you. If that's his experience...

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

I don’t know what to tell you

Well, you apparently don't know the cause of his experience, so duh ...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, I could. But that allows the phone company to be lazy about coverage and building their network. The primary reason I pay a monthly cell phone bill is for a good network.

It also gets into security issues that are different from cellular network use.

And what if my internet is down and I have an emergency?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How often do you have an emergency that combines lost wifi and inability to leave the basement?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The older I get the more possible that becomes. I am not 20 and bulletproof any more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's still more than I expected. But it doesn't look like the dramatic turn of tides.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's a fad. The moment you need a certain app or feature these feature (-less) phones become frustrating quickly.

Take the idea of taking a break from your smartphone on a vacation. You end up without a camera, without a map, without public transport apps, contact-free payment, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think you'd be surprised how easy it is to live without any of those things, even in the modern world. Also, feature phones have cameras and some basic apps. They're not actually 80s cordless phones.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

For the past 10 years I never bought a phone for more than 300 euros.

I usually get a new phone every 3 years to have the latest tech and donate or recycle the old one.

For the last year I had an iPhone 13 pro (usually goes around 1100 euro) as a work phone and my personal Redmi Note 11 Pro I bought for 270 euros and not once I told myself: Man, this iphone is at least 3 times better than my Xiaomi. It's clearly a premium product but a middle category budget phone can match most features and even more. I still have a headphone jack, bigger 120 Hz screen, IR blaster and an amazing fingerprint sensor.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

iphone is clever marketing scheme to become a status symbol for a generation that no longer has a car as one.