Smartphone Backlash? What Smartphone Backlash?

This week the most read and most talked-about article on our site was about John’s Phone, the basic phone from Holland, designed for people who don’t like smarpthones.

While we have every good wish for John Doe, the company which launched this device for technophobes, we don’t believe – as some people seem to – that this is a sign of any serious backlash against smartphones.

We may be wrong of course. The current advertising campaign for Windows Phone 7 seems to think people hate using their smartphones. It is built around the idea that people should get off their phones quickly and get back to stuff like brain surgery, getting married using a urinal and walking downstairs.

Do we hate smartphones?

Could Microsoft, and John Doe have a point?

Several people – who don’t understand the way market size determines prices – felt that for what it does, John’s Phone’s £60 price tag was a bit steep. But the overwhelming tone of comments on our story was respect for the designers who followed through the concept.

Some people would consider using the phone, but most people said it was not for them – or even made the point that anyone reading the article was more or less by definition not part of the target market.

For most commentators, the idea of a paper notebook for addresses is amusingly “retro”, and would be more in keeping with a phone fitted with a rotary dialler.

However, most of us have elderly relatives, who are generally let down by phone makers. Even the simpler phones tend to have features which are hard to understand, and make it hard to get to really useful features like the mute button.

These people often have their most commonly used numbers taped to the back of the phone, instead of in the speed dial. Additional options such as Internet connections are simply alarming to them – especially as the Internet button on a feature phone tends to be placed enticingly where it can be used easily or – all too often – accidentally.

Keeping technology under control

There are people who don’t understand or want technology, but there are others who simply want to keep it under control. These people might adopt the device to show they are not slaves to constant email and Facebook communications.

For these people, a John’s Phone might be a useful sign to the people they are with that they could be able to give full attention to the world around them, for a change.

I’m saying that this phone might be a good one to take on a dinner date – especially if you live in a world like the Microsoft ad, where using a smartphone is clearly a menace to your social life, and a danger to your existence.

But if you got lost on the way home, you and your date might wish you could call up a map, or look up a phone number for a cab service. You might also long for a music player, or a camera, typically built into your smartphone.

The truth of the matter is, no matter what people say in response to a product like this, smartphone sales are booming. But a cut-back smartphone might make us look at our technology use a bit differently, and that is not a bad thing.