Apple's iPhones have been criticized for existing within a “walled garden” and commands a high price in exchange for entry. And while the big tech companies are competing with the latest smartphones from companies like GoogleApple and Samsungthere may be competition from an unexpected place: “dumbness.”
These phones, which are usually stripped back to basics with a limited range of features, are now being adopted by CEOs who can afford to be less accessible, reports Wall Street Journal.
DumbWireless, a marketplace that sells dumbphones from brands like Nokia and Punkt, no sale of $68,000 in March alone compared to $5,000 in March 2023 – an increase of over 14-fold.
Benjamin Crudo, the 41-year-old CEO of retail software company Diff, told the Journal that he uses a Punkt MP02 phone, which offers calling and texting and costs $299. He said he only responds to emails or Slack messages when he's at his desktop, and if an after-hours emergency happens, employees can reach him with a phone call.
Crudo said his way of communicating causes “a little bit of disruption because everyone around me is communicating a certain way and I'm choosing to communicate differently.”
“Lucky for me, I'm the boss,” he said.
In addition to the Punkt phone, other dumbphones include the Light Phone 2, a $299 device with a black-and-white E-ink display that focuses primarily on calls and messages, and the $329 Sunbeam F1 Pro. flip phone which can come with navigation, weather and hotspot, or no media at all.
Light Phone 2 (L) and Sunbeam F1 Phone (R). Photo by JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images
Dumbphones have managed to capture interest, even if they are not guaranteed cameras. Phone Light raised funds $400,000 from thousands of individual backers on Kickstarter starting at 2015. Now the company says it has shipped more than 100,000 phones.
Despite their limited functionality compared to smartphones, dumbphones are not always the cheapest option. The $799 Light Phone 3, for example, adds 5G, a camera and a larger screen to the Light Phone 2 at a comparable price on the new iPhone 16.