Announced a short time ago, the Callback 8020 is seen as a means of combating the addictive lure of the modern-day smartphone. While it supports Android apps via its SailfishOS, it disables features like web browsing and social media by default.
However, despite the noble quest for a ‘digital detox’, the phone met with a somewhat frosty reception online (no pun intended), with many comparing it to an elderly relative’s flip phone. In our poll, 70 percent of you said you wouldn’t be buying one.
$399, what? This is tech from over a decade ago, there are smart phones that sell for under $100. Seems like a stupid gimmick only wealthy parents will buy for their kids.
Yes, mass production feature phones. This won’t be a mass production product. You’d be surprised how much that increases costs. The question is of course, if one can make a product under those circumstances that people are still ready to buy. In other words, it has to offer something (can also be non-material) that differentiates it from those mass production feature phones.
In this case it’s linux. I am prepared to pay gobs for proper linux devices. However, I’d rather something like a liberux Nexx if that thing ever comes to fruition.
Liberux Nexx sounds cool but also a bit like vapourware. I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
Personally, I am giving Sailfish OS a chance. After all, that isn’t a “dumb phone” OS as such. They appear to dumb it down for the Callback. It is not dumbed down for the Jolla Phone. If things work out, we should get real units into our hands at the launch event in July.