Bring on the Brick

My mum has a brick for a mobile phone - literally think the Nokia 3310 and add about a stone to its weight then you are getting near to the size of her phone - in fact pick up a small bottle of coke and that is about the same size.

Why does she carry such an enourmous brick about with her - because she wants to make a phone call and not have to worry about finding the button to call someone in amongst the million other buttons for making the coffee, building a house and writing a will.

That and the fact that she has crap eyesight and can't see the small buttons on 'modern' phones. I'm pretty sure she isn't alone in this - I personally like my phone to do just about as much as it possibly can (apart from play music - I have my iPod for that) and at the moment I have an nGage.

One UK company has already realised there is a maket for bigger, simpler phones that ... well ... let you phone people (and send text messages).

The company is called Retrophone, they launched last year and sel around 500 phones a month to poeple that want their phones to be bigger, tougher and simpler.

The companies founder Olly Pegg said that their customers are 30 to 40 with plenty of money but want a phone that carries out its original purpose.

Now one of the big boys are getting in on the act of Retro phoning.

Vodafone are launching 'Vodafone Simply' sometime this year that will basically be a very simple phone that does calls and text messaging with a simple transparent pricing structure - nice!

I doubt it will just be the old and refusnicks that jump on the simpler phone band wagon, surely it is only a matter of time before the mobile market follows the other big fickle industries - movies, music, fashion and computer games into the retro vibe with people harking for the highlights of yesteryear.

Just look lately we have had the re-birth of New Order, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Space Invaders, Duran Duran and wearing a suit jacket with jeans (lets hope shoulder pads and perms stay in the 80s).

There was a programme on SKY ONE yesterday refering to 'Generation Jedi' the kids that grew up with the first wave of Star Wars who are now in power around the world (in power refering to head of TV companies, countries and other influential people) - that's probably why we are experiencing a 70s/80s retro resurgence - god help us when Generation Spice (and crap pop) get in power in about 10 years.

Find out more in the Guardian article that inspired this post.

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