Alive and kicking: the single use device
By Greg Vitarelli, Managing Director, Sherpa

In early 2008, 02 and Nokia began a consumer trial of a new mobile phone that doubles up as an Oyster wireless travelcard and a Barclaycard cashless payment card. It means you don't have to leave home with anything more than your mobile. It also means if you lose it, you can't catch the tube home, don't have the cash for a cab fare and can't call your spouse to pick you up.

It wasn't always like this, once upon a time, we used to have single use devices - phones which just made calls and sent text messages.

Going retro

When something gets old, someone somewhere will decide it’s cool and label it retro or vintage. But that can’t always happen. While people will happily upgrade from a BMW to a classic Jaguar, nobody wants to dig up an old brick of a mobile phone.

But one rebel seems to have kept its cool status despite being rendered a technological relic by recent phones. Nokia’s 6310i phone (circa 2003) seems to have a better reputation now than when it first hit the market. Is this an amazing comeback or more like a lesson in behavioural psychology?

A columnist from The Times (UK) recently praised­ the 6310i’s very usable features, the best being the ability to easily make calls. In fairness it was all he seemed to care about in a mobile er, phone. Some business people I’ve met have even shunned new smartphones to go back to an old reliable, user-friendly 6310s as their most reliable and usable handset.

Maybe it never died with some users. Upon reading the aforementioned Times article I recalled that my wife kept an old Nokia phone as a back-up and dug it out. Guess what it was – yes, a 6310i.

This got me thinking, with all these fancy one-box-does-everything gadgets, is the single-function device still alive?

Old technogical gold

You must know that I’m one of those people that holds on to technology favourites like my 1991 Mac Classic, which still boasts a version of flight simulator.  My 2002 Sony Clie handheld is a recently retired faithful companion which saw me through hectic business moments and zoning out to hits from the 80s.

A trip overseas meant I needed a second mobile, so I revived my 2000 Motorola Timeport, because I only needed something to make calls on. Despite taking a swim in a (clean) toilet, it stills fires up and adequately performs all these years later. This compared to my new-fangled smart-phone which can’t take a fall without visiting telephone hospital.

Since the 6310i was launched, the development of convergence on the mobile handset has really stepped up with legitimate performance from sought after applications like email, web, camera – still and video and music.

The next generation of handsets will begin incorporating wallet features that aim to replace that leathery lump in our back pockets.  We’ll be running our thumbs across authentication scanners that may not work too well at first but like their predecessor add-ons it will eventually get there and work like second nature.

So time marches on and so must our technology but don’t despair – it’s a great thing. Prepare to be amazed by the tomorrow’s innovation, but maybe store today’s old thing somewhere safe, you never know when you will need it.

Contact Greg Vitarelli, Sherpa Media

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