2023-10-02 18:20:02
News JVTech The best-selling cell phone in history is not an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy, but a Nokia (and it’s 20 years old)
Published on 02/10/2023 at 8:20 p.m.
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It was not a very advanced phone, even for its time, but it was characterized by its simplicity and robustness.
A record that Apple and Samsung will have difficulty achieving
If you were asked what the best-selling cell phone in history is, you would probably think of smartphones from Apple or Samsung, two of the most popular brands today. Yet, this achievement does not belong to them. To find the true holder of this remarkable title, we must take a journey back in time, a journey that takes us back two decades, to a time when the world was very different. Do you remember what life was like in 2003? If you’re a 100-year-old, this may not be the right question for you, but if you’re from older generations, you probably have an answer. Focusing on the more technical side of things, for us at JV, broadband was present in many places and, in terms of wireless connectivity, we were still using 2G networks.
Photo credit: Tim Samuel (Pexels)
When it came to work or study, we turned to our computers running Windows XP or Mac OS X (not macOS). We also witnessed the arrival of the first smartphones live. As we recalled a few years ago, among the most prominent mobiles were the BlackBerry 6230, the Sony Ericsson P900 and the Nokia 6600. The latter manufacturer was the true king of the market. Its catalog of devices was enormous, knowing that Nokia was not limited to advanced phones. At the time, the company was also, understandably, engaging in smaller solutions for customers with more limited budgets..
Nokia had the recipe
And we say it was a wise bet because, in the middle of the development of the smartphone concept, a mobile called Nokia 1100 timidly appeared which was not intended for this segment. It was not distinguished by its camera or its color screen. It was a standard, basic mobile, but built on a solid concept that made it as efficient as it was indestructible. When it launched in August 2003, the Nokia 1100 was priced around $100. The Finns, who had a global presence, wanted the phone to work in the most demanding environments. This requirement has translated directly into the design, with a fully enclosed keyboard that protects against dust and non-slip rubber edges, ideal in wet weather.
Credit photo : Pawel Czerwinski (Unsplash)
The phone has a monochrome screen, flashlight, clock, calendar, calculator, stopwatch and address book. When it came to ringtones, there were 36 options to choose from or, if you were smart enough, seven spaces to record your own ringtones. One of the advantages of the device was its great autonomy. Nokia’s tactic to achieve this was very simple: incorporate into the Nokia 1100 a battery originally designed for more advanced and therefore more energy-hungry models. This was the BL-5C battery, which allowed the device to be used for more than a week without the need to be connected to a charger.
This combination of features made the phone a success, although its presence went relatively unnoticed in many markets. Since its launch, it has sold more than 250 million copies, even more than Apple’s best-selling iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which sold some 225 million copies.
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