ANALYSIS: Remember 2000? That time when you could accidentally drop your phone on the floor and it would bounce? That time when you wouldn’t need to hold your breath in anticipation, or rather fear, that your screen had smashed and you would have to re-mortgage to buy another phone? Remember the days when we couldn’t get e-mails in our pockets, or didn’t have to side-step people, head-down engrossed in Eastenders as they walked zombie-like down the street? Remember Snake?
Well, those days are returning. Sort of. This week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HMD Global, the maker of Nokia phones, announced the return of a property industry favourite, the Nokia 3310.
The Nokia 3310 was the phone of choice. It was indestructible and the battery never died. For a long time it was the phone that powered the property industry.
But it is dated. It didn’t allow us to work on the go, to pick up e-mails, to update spreadsheets, finish up proposals, tweet, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. It did just let us make phone calls, text and play Snake.
So why, in this world of total and constant connectedness, is HMD bringing it back?
HMD and many of the commentators expect the new 3310 to be very popular, and with a launch price of just £41.51 it is easy to understand why. But could its expected popularity be more than just a fun and relatively cheap trip down memory lane or are we all suffering a little bit from tech innovation overload?
The new 3310 will rely on 2.5G connectivity, none of this 5G malarkey, not even 4G or 3G. It will be powered by the S30+ operating system, which allows web browsing but has a small range of apps than Android or iOS. Its camera is just two megapixels. You may as well just draw your selfie.
With 15m of us taking digital detoxes, according to Ofcom’s latest Communications Market Report, the 3310 may well be the tool that allows us to undertake that detox in a way that still allows us to work and be connected but not let it consume us.
A 2016 study from Deloitte shows that people check their phones 47 times a day, on average. We are a nation addicted to our smartphones. A third of us check them in the middle of the night, a third of us have argued with our partners over our use of them, a third of us look at them within five minutes of waking up.
There is no denying that being connected has enabled us to work more, but has it actually made us more productive?
Not according to plenty of research, which has shown on numerous occasions that smartphone addiction not only increases stress levels, but negatively affects our work performance.
So, should we go dumbphone to get smart? Maybe. But not too dumb, of course. There is no room for Luddites in this industry anymore. But maybe, just maybe, HMD’s new 3310 will enable users to show they get tech, but that they know how (and when) to use it for the best, most productive effect.
Or maybe they just want to beat their old top score on Snake.
Will you be returning to a 3310 for a mini digital detox? Tweet us @estatesgazette using #techtalk
• To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
