The Future of Cell Phones is Here, or is it?

Need a cell phone you can count on? This one last 15 years.

It’s hard to determine whether or not the SpareOne phone is a breakthrough in cell phone technology.

On one hand, the phones makers have created a high tech device that runs on a single AA battery, which can last up to 15 years or through 10 hours of talk time.

When considering the duration of the phone’s battery life, one would believe it is revolutionary for the industry; however, upon second look, the SpareOne seems to symbolize the complete opposite – a revert back to the ways of old.

The SpareOne’s sole purpose is to last long in the event of an emergency. The design beckons the early 1990s, before the cell phone had developed it’s firm grasp over our everyday lives, before it could help customers search the web or check their email.

XPAL Power, the company that powers SpareOne’s simple battery system, suggests customers keep this stashed away and only use the phone in extreme instances such as accidents or natural disasters. The phone could serve a number of purposes though, including being deployed to our young children instead of entrusting them with mini super computers we have today.

Is this a repeat of a former episode?

When the millennium came a dozen years ago, American parents made a radical shift in how, and what, they wanted cell phones to be.

Now, with cell phone technology improving exponentially, SpareOne’s makers believe it is time to look into the past and extract something from the simplicity of what cell phones used to be for.

SpareOne’s design is so regressive that the phone doesn’t even have a screen. Instead, customers can program up to 10 numbers and attach them to the phone using a sticker, which is again reminiscent of an earlier time period for phones that many young people never knew.

“Elderly people appreciate the simplicity, it reminds them of what a phone should be and was,” said Jeniece Aragon, SpareOne’s marketing manager.

With the target market actualized, the phone’s designers and marketers had an easy decision when it came to setting a price – stay on course. In short, keep things simple.

The affordability of the phone is considerably primitive versus other smart phones on the market. Despite its innovation, the SpareOne is not trying to sell itself on being futuristic. Rather, the makers of the phone are targeting customers looking for a simpler phone, which is a dying breed in today’s world.

In a time where there are so many options in cell phone technology, the SpareOne may be the only phone marketing itself on its simplicity. It is a phone that resembles the past, yet it is built to survive in the future. While this may be ironic, the phone’s quest into the future is still very much to be determined.

The engineers may have created a phone they believe will last 15 years, but is that projection a true reality, or is it corporate spin?

Only time will tell. For now, welcome to the future of cell phone technology, sort of.

SpareOne

Comments

comments