feature phones
KaiOS, the feature phone platform startup, raises a modest $3.4M to train its sights on growth in Africa
Smartphone shipments have been declining in what has been a rough year for mobile handsets, and that’s meant even more pressure on an already-precarious sliver of the mobile market: feature…
While Android and iOS have locked up the market for smartphone operating systems, a feature phone platform that has the distinction of being the world’s third biggest mobile OS is…
KaiOS, now with 85M feature phones shipped, doubles down with Google, carrier deals and more
As the rate of smartphone sales continues to slow down and decline, a software startup called KaiOS — which launched in 2017 from the ashes of Mozilla’s failed Firefox OS…
Just last week, HMD was priming the press for the return of Nokia-branded handsets, slated to arrive at some point in the first half of next year. The young Finnish…
Microsoft is selling the feature phone business it acquired from Nokia back in 2013 to a subsidiary of Chinese manufacturer Foxconn for $350 million, it announced today. At the same…
Gartner: Smartphone Sales Finally Beat Out Dumb Phone Sales Globally In 2013, With 968M Units Sold
2013 was the year when the inevitable happened: worldwide sales of smartphones surpassed sales of the more basic (and generally cheaper) feature phone devices for the first time, according to…
Team Behind Facebook For Feature Phones Launches Chaatz, A Mobile Messaging App Aimed At Emerging Markets
A team with extensive experience working with the OEMs, carriers, and platform makers in the mobile industry, and who was most recently tasked with the creation of the Facebook mobile…
Twitter Is Taking A “Log-Out” Approach To Raise Usage, Awareness In Emerging Markets With USSD On Mobiles
Twitter is working hard to build up its profile and usage among people in developing markets, and today another piece of that strategy has come into focus. It has signed…
Foursquare Checks In With Feature Phones: A New App For Nokia S40 Phones And An Asha Preloading Deal
Foursquare has made a name for itself out of the growth in smartphones, but as it tries to build up business in newer markets, it’s covering all of its bases.…
Nokia’s Asha line of less-expensive smartphones, not developed on Microsoft’s Windows Phone but Nokia’s own proprietary OS, is getting a new boost of attention today. The company is unveiling a…
Smartphone Shipments To Top 1B For the First Time In 2013, But The Definition Of ‘Smartphone’ Is Slipping: Deloitte
The smartphone boom is continuing apace, but with growth comes mutation: new figures out from Deloitte estimate that 2013 will be the first year that the industry collectively ships 1 billion smartphones…
Opera Web Pass Gives Mobile Subscribers Access To Pay-As-You Go Internet Access, No Data Plan Required
This morning, web browser maker Opera announced a new way for mobile operators to offer web access to subscribers who don’t have a data plan. The service, called “Opera Web…
Twitter just announced an update to its mobile site that is meant to bring it up to par with the new version of Twitter the company introduced in December. According…
Do women need special cell phones? Certain companies, such as Deutsche Telekom or Samsung, seem to think so. Now Fujitsu Japan is ready to roll out [JP] not one but…
Japan’s second biggest carrier KDDI took the wraps off [JP] a total of eight new cell phones for the domestic market today. To be more concrete, the telco (which is…
Japan’s mobile carriers are currently releasing a number of interesting handsets, which are all part of their summer 2011 line-up. While smartphones, the iPhone and Android in particular, are taking…
Revolution in mobile-crazy Japan: Market research firm GFK Japan is reporting [JP, PDF] that more smartphones than feature phones have been sold in the country between March 28 and April…
KDDI, Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier, has today announced its cell phone line-up for the coming winter and spring. The company has shown not only three smartphones and two new…