
Whilst there has been a great deal of reminiscing about the excellent battery life, Snake and how it will be great to be able to have a phone again that is, well, just a phone, I’m particularly pleased to see the resurrection of a design classic. Product design - in this case mobile phone design - had it much harder even those few years ago - there were all those little numbers, navigational keys and tiny screens to fit into a palm sized device when smaller definitely meant better. Technology has come a long way since then, but I can’t help think that by moving the majority of functionality into a blank touch screen we have managed to homogenise the form factor of the device itself.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m definitely a fan of modern device design (well, some anyway), but a lot of ‘new’ devices do look very similar, and seem only really differentiated from one another by their technological features, not their physical design. I’m sure everyone can take a stab at when the design of mobile devices converged and arrived at the current ‘(i)deal’ solution, but is this it, or will we start to see a reemergence of devices with a little more personality in their design? I can’t help my wry smile when thinking how in this technology and feature abundant world the ‘latest development’ that has got everyone talking is a slightly revamped turn of the century design - brilliant.
HMD have identified an opportunity and the appeal for a non-smart phone - “It’s almost like a digital detox or a holiday phone” their Chief executive Arto Nummela recently explained to the BBC. However he did go on to say - “Why wouldn’t you buy this like candy? If you see this hanging on the shelf at the checkout in a [see-through] package, then you’d just buy it as an accessory.”
Whilst I find it a bit of a struggle to share this ‘optimistic’ sales view - I’m not sure I can remember the last time I bought a £40 chocolate bar on impulse whilst queueing for my groceries - I’m sure a lot of consumers (even just of a certain age) will be keen to get their hands on a revamped version of this design classic.
Smart.
This was originally posted on my own site.
