If the rumours are true, and the NOKIA 3310 is set to be revised at the Mobile World Congress, this is an exciting time. I owned one of these delightful handsets, and it stood the test of time.
The phone that has been touted as ‘unbreakable’, with outstanding battery life and durability, launched in 2000 – yes that’s 17 years ago – and it might just give the modern-day smart phone a run for its money.
Let’s face it, we love our smart phones, and who wouldn’t with instant online access, games, social media, apps and all our contacts in one place. Life is pretty breezy.
But on the flip side, I know if I lost my iPhone I’d be in a mad panic.
That wasn’t the case when I owned my NOKIA. Admittedly I stored phone numbers in my phone, but I also owned a paper address book that I could flip open in an instant. I couldn’t bury my head in my phone for more than a few minutes.
I wasn’t worried about losing my contacts, or having no online access or social media at my fingertips. Life was carefree.
The beauty of this old technology is that it was built to last and relatively simple to use. It didn’t take over your life, and there were no software updates that made your phone run like a wet slug.
While I’m certainly not ready to give up my smart phone (not now, not ever), it will be great to see a mix of old and new and observe whether consumers come flooding back for a taste of nostalgia.
Technology has changed everything, some might argue for better or worse, but there’s something to be said about how we got here. From the brick handsets of the 80’s with battery packs to the super light smart phones, the evolution is amazing to watch.
We can’t turn back time, and I’m sure most of us wouldn’t give up the convenience of modern-day apps. But we can appreciate old technology for what it was worth.
