Big U.K. carrier Orange is to sell a tiny touchscreen dumbphone. With a 1.3MP camera, MP3 player and a no-contract $70 price tag, it could be the perfect upgrade for those who like minimalist stuff like cheap Nokias and the Moto F3, but who also enjoy the fruits of modern technology.
Wired‘s Charlemagne Sorrel writes at Wired:
This got us thinking. Once you have a touch screen, is it easier and cheaper to add features? After all, once you have the internal in place, its just software, right? You can churn out all manner of handsets at different prices and differentiate them with functions. A smartphone no longer needs to be made with a keyboard, just a better OS inside.
He too finds it odd that such a basic machine is being called “The Vegas.”
I wonder if this trend(if it turns out to be a trend) will lead to even harder handset lockdowns?
When there is a physical, hardware, difference between the cheap seats and first class, you can deign to let the proles much about however they like. If, on the other hand, a hacked ROM and a quick reflash at home(for geeks) or at the dodgy kiosk(for everybody else) will bump your free-with-contract-punishment-phone up 4 price points, there is more of an incentive to crack down hard.
If you think of this phone as being named for Johnny Vegas instead of the city, it no longer seems quite so odd.