Feature phone
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of
Definition
Prior to the popularity of smartphones, the term 'feature phone' was often used on high-end mobile telephones with assorted functions for retail customers, developed at the advent of 3G networks, which allowed sufficient bandwidth for these capabilities.[1]
Depending on extent of functionality, feature phones may have many of the capabilities of a smartphone, within certain cases.[2]
Contemporary usage
In developed economies, feature phones are primarily specific to niche markets, or have become merely a preference; owing to certain feature combinations not available in other devices, such as affordability, durability, and simplicity.[3]
A well-specified feature phone can be used in industrial environments, and the outdoors, at workplaces that proscribe dedicated cameras, and as an
History
Industry trends
In developed economies, fashion and brand loyalty drove sales, as markets had matured and people moved to their second and third phones. In the United States, technological innovation with regard to expanded functionality was a secondary consideration, as phone designs there centred on miniaturisation.[6][7][8]
Existing feature phone
There has been an industry shift from feature phones (including low-end smartphones), which rely mainly on volume sales, to high-end flagship smartphones, which also enjoy higher margins, thus manufacturers find high-end smartphones much more lucrative than feature phones.[11][12]
The shift away from feature phones has forced mobile network operators to increase subsidies of handsets, and the high selling-prices of flagship smartphones have had a negative effect on the mobile network operators, who have seen their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margins drop as they sold more smartphones and fewer feature phones. To help make up for this, carriers typically use high-end devices to upsell customers onto higher-priced service plans with increased data allotments.[13][14][15] Trends have shown that consumers are willing to pay more for smartphones that include newer features and technology, and that smartphones were considered to be more relevant in present-day popular culture than feature phones.[16]
During the mid-2000s, best-selling feature phones such as the fashionable flip-phone Motorola Razr, multimedia Sony Ericsson W580i, and the LG Black Label Series not only occupied the mid-range pricing in a wireless provider's range, they made up the bulk of retail sales as smartphones from BlackBerry and Palm were still considered a niche category for business use. Even as late as 2009, smartphone penetration in North America was low.[17]
In 2011, feature phones accounted for 60 percent of the mobile telephones in the United States,[18] and 70 percent of mobile phones sold worldwide.[19] According to Gartner in Q2 2013, 225 million smartphones were sold worldwide which represented a 46.5 percent gain over the same period in 2012, while 210 million feature phones were sold, which was a decrease of 21 percent year over year, the first time that smartphones have outsold feature phones.[16][20] Smartphones accounted for 51.8 percent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time.[21]
A survey of 4,001 Canadians by
Japan
Mobile games oriented towards smartphones have seen significant growth and revenue in Japan, even though there were three times fewer smartphone users in the country than in the United States as of 2017.[28]
Platforms
MediaTek developed an embedded operating system named MAUI Runtime Environment which is based on Nucleus RTOS.[30][31]
See also
References
- ^ Miller, Hugo (11 January 2013). "RIM says 150 carriers keep it from Palm's fate (Toronto)". TheSpec.com. TheSpec.com – Metroland Media Group Ltd. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013.
- EMEA) region for the first time in 2003. It says about 3.3 million smartphones will be sold in the region this year, as opposed to 2.8 million handhelds.
- ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (27 April 2016). "It's OK not to use a smartphone". The Wall Street Journal. New York.
- Israel National News – Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ^ "Easyload".
- Business Week. 16 June 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Why does Symbian collapse?". PixelsTech.net. Pixels Tech. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ "Business: Washington Post business page, business news". WashPost.Bloomberg.com. The Washington Post – Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ Marlow, Iain (27 January 2013). "RIM's long road to reinvent the BlackBerry". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ZDNet.
- ^ Ashraf Eassa (12 February 2013). "Nokia's Lumia strategy will pay off nicely". SeekingAlpha.com. Seeking Alpha.
- ^ Chris Smith (24 December 2012). "Galaxy S4 to spearhead impressive Samsung year, company to sell 390 million smartphones in 2013". www.AndroidAuthority.com. Android Authority. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021.
- CNN Money. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ "Sprint Nextel: Apple drinks the juice". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ Gustin, Sam (8 February 2012). "How Apple's iPhone actually hurts AT&T, Verizon and Sprint". Time. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ a b Reisinger, Don (15 August 2013). "Smartphones sales finally overtake feature phones: 10 reasons why". www.eWeek.com. eWeek.
- ^ Hugo Miller (11 January 2013). "RIM says 150 carriers keep it from Palm's fate". TheSpec.com. The Spec. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013.
- Nielsen Company. Archived from the originalon 21 October 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
- ZDNet.
- ^ Rob van der Meulen & Janessa Rivera (14 August 2013). "Gartner says smartphone sales grew 46.5 percent in second quarter of 2013 and exceeded feature phone sales for first time". www.Gartner.com. Gartner.
- ^ Cyrus Farivar (14 August 2013). "Smartphones outsell feature phones, for the first time". arstechnica.com.
- ^ Oliveira, Michael (1 May 2013). "Smartphones push old flip phones to extinction". GlobalNews.ca. Global News Canada. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ^ "Jargon watch". www.Wired.com. Wired. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
Galápagos syndrome n. The scourge of Japanese mobile companies, whose superadvanced 3G handsets won't work on foreign cell networks. It's named for the birds of the Galápagos, whose specialized beaks don't cut it on the mainland.
- Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
'Galapagos syndrome', a phrase originally coined to describe Japanese cell phones that were so advanced they had little in common with devices used in the rest of the world, could potentially spread to other parts of society. Indeed signs suggest it is happening already.
- ^ Adelstein, Jake (5 March 2015). "In Japan, people are flipping out over the flip-phone (Galapagos phone): what's old is new again". Forbes. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ Takahashi, Yoshio (17 December 2013). "Japan as Galápagos again – now it's the cars". blogs.WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ "Japanese mobile market outgrows US three years in a row". www.GamesIndustry.biz. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ "Learn about Java Technology". Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- ^ "MAUI Runtime Environment".
- ^ "What is MRE?". MRE.MediaTek.com. MediaTek. Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
External links
- Media related to Mobile phone at Wikimedia Commons