Can dumbphones revive Europe’s mobile industry? (thenextweb.com)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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I post this knowing the article naively hopeful but it's also food for thought. With the recent drama where Google stopped publishing device-specific AOSP code - thus making maintaining custom ROMs more difficult - what will more tech-knowledgeable people do if Android is enshittified further?

Will "phone ludditism" - switching to dumbphone with a simple OS like Mocor RTOS, S30+, ThreadX etc. be the answer for some of them? They're deGoogled out of the factory. I switched to a dumbphone as my main phone, but I still keep an Android smartphone at home for online banking. I also take the smartphone with me if I know I'll need a hotspot or a map. I use the smartphone like a PDA, or a terminal to the Android ecosystem.

It's also questionable whether "Europe is leading in the dumbphone sector". Sure we have HMD, Doro, Crosscall, Gigaset (sold to South Koreans), MaxKom or myPhone but there are so many other potentially bigger companies like TCL or Itel. One thing is for sure - in the dumbphone sector and considering how simple those devices are, Europe at least stands a fighting chance. Whether somebody will become a dumbphone martyr in order to exist in this Europe-friendly sector is another thing.

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[-] gabelstapler@feddit.org 23 points 5 days ago

Why would anyone (besides some privacy conscious nerds) go back to using a dumb phone? Besides everyone using WhatsApp as the default messenger, in so many aspects of life we're damned to use apps. Banking, charging electric vehicle, insurances, loyalty programs, etc.

Whatever is your dumb phone will run on, an Android compatibility layer is an absolute must.

[-] lmuel@sopuli.xyz 16 points 5 days ago

This is unfortunately the truth.

I'd like to use a dumb phone, it does help me quite a bit since I have difficulties dealing with distractions… but even as someone who is very detached from the entire social media lifestyle (although I obviously use Lemmy lol) it's quite difficult nowadays.

I tried… But even simple things like getting my grandma to call me using the normal phone app on her smartphone instead of WhatsApp is basically impossible.

[-] Tenderizer@lemm.ee 12 points 5 days ago

Dumbphones aren't just about privacy, they're also good for treating phone addiction.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 5 points 5 days ago

Also, privacy conscious? SMS, MMS, and cell calling is like the least private you can get IIRC.

[-] gabelstapler@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

True, but with apps not only the government, but the companies can spy on you.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 2 points 5 days ago

Do you think your ISP and cell phone providers aren't companies?? 😂 in america it was made fully legal like a decade ago for them to spy on you 24/7 and sell all of that information to the lowest bidders.

Here in the EU it is better, but still not great...

[-] BenchpressMuyDebil@szmer.info 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I agree that using a dumbphone can be hugely impractical, especially in today's app centric world. I posted the article to this community because I found it interesting how before smartphones came about, the phone market had major stakeholders from Europe (that I listed in the original post) and how using a dumbphone OS automatically cuts you off from American big techs (a big theme in this community). Switching to such OS is naturally "solving the problem" by nuking it and as you noticed - impractical for some, but I dunno, found it interesting.

Whether somebody will become a dumbphone martyr in order to exist in this Europe-friendly sector is another thing.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025

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