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Article information
- Author, Zoe Kleinman
- Role, Editor-in-Chief of BBC News Technology
-
2 hours ago
Happy new smartphone season to all those who celebrate it.
It’s that time of year when tech giants are doing everything they can to convince you to update your devices.
We saw Google recently launch its latest model, the Pixel 9, followed by Apple with its iPhone 16.
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Samsung launched the latest versions of its foldable phones, the Z Flip6 and Z Fold6, in July. Huawei just upped the ante by unveiling a phone in China called the Mate XT, which contains two folds, folding the screen into three.
As smartphone sales slow down around the world, marketing messages are becoming more and more dazzling.
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image captionApple and Google have both made strong commitments to artificial intelligence.
Apple boss Tim Cook promised that the iPhone16 would “redefine what makes a smartphone,” whatever that means.
Brian Rakowski, vice president of product management at Google, was full of praise for the “stunning” design of the “beautiful” Pixel 9, even though it still looks a lot like a black rectangle.
Huawei now has its own product promotion song, its press team says, which “powerfully expresses the pursuit of dreams, emphasizing that every breakthrough and success of the company stems from the belief in our dreams.”
Yes, we’re still talking about phones.
Both Apple and Google have focused on artificial intelligence.
Google’s new Magic Editor allows you to add AI-generated content to existing photos and remove unwanted elements, with varying degrees of success, in my experience.
Apple’s intelligence in the iPhone16 includes chat maker OpenAI technology GPT integrated with the Siri digital assistant, which many believe is long overdue for an update.
But did anyone say they wanted all these things?
Fewer purchases per year
Mobile expert Ben Wood, of research firm CCS Insight, said that while AI features aim to make digital lives easier, they are not necessarily at the top of consumers’ wish lists.
“I think most people now know what they want from a phone, one of the most important things being the camera,” he says.
Phone designers know this too. The technical specifications of each new camera phone are generally improved compared to the previous generation. But even that is no longer a guarantee of sales.
“What is certain is that people are keeping their phones longer. In 2013, 30 million phones were sold per year,” adds Mr. Wood. “This year, around 13.5 million will be sold.
Of course, the current cost of living crisis is affecting consumers’ spending decisions. There is also the environmental cost of phones, which contain rare earths and precious metals.
Additionally, there is a growing trend, especially among parents and young people, to try to abandon smartphones altogether.
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Légende image, Users keep their phones longer, according to specialists.
“Digital sobriety”
Several British schools are reviewing their smartphone policies, and some have already opted for an outright ban.
This term, exclusive British school Eton gave its pupils phones with basic functions, the unpopular “dumb phones”. Other establishments are considering doing the same.
The EE mobile phone network recommends that children under the age of 11 should not have a smartphone at all.
Nova East, which is leading the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign in London, is urging parents and schools to work together to delay the age at which children receive these devices.
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Légende image, The idea of ’digital sobriety’ is gaining ground in many schools and families.
“We’re not against technology, we’re just for kids. We would like technology companies to develop a child-friendly phone that only offers essential functions such as calls, messaging, music and maps, without any additional features,” he explains.
Sasha Luccioni, a researcher at artificial intelligence company Hugging Face, believes that so far the message does not seem to be getting through.
There’s more and more talk about ‘digital sobriety’, about how we build and use technology, but it seems like smartphone designers are going in exactly the opposite direction,” she says.
We asked Apple, Google and Samsung about this.
“Samsung users can choose how to use their Galaxy phone to best meet their needs. For example, Digital Wellbeing features let users choose which features they use, when they use them and for how long, and you can set a screen time limit for the specific apps you want restrict,” the company responded.
Simpler, more practical
Finnish company HMD, which still makes basic Nokia phones, is one of the companies hearing the growing calls to reduce phone features.
Last month it launched a Barbie-themed phone in collaboration with toymaker Mattel and I tried it out. The two words I would use to describe it are: functional and pink.
It has no apps, no app store, no selfie camera and only one game. To listen to music there is an FM radio.
CCS Insight predicts that around 400,000 basic phones are likely to be sold in the UK this year, which is not enough to dethrone the iPhone from the list of the world’s best-selling phones in the near future, but it shows that consumers are interested in it.
I just checked my own screen time over the past seven days and found an average of about five hours per day.
Sure, it’s a sobering statistic, but it’s not just about needlessly flicking around on the screen.
My phone is a work tool. I also use it for my bank accounts, my purchases, my itineraries, my medical monitoring and my family projects. And also for games and social networks.
“I think we always forget that there are many benefits to using smartphones,” says Pete Etchells, professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University.
