5G networks are a challenge, but so are feature phones.

There are parts of the world where smartphones do not dominate yet. From the perspective of customers from US or EU, we can make a prediction that non-smartphones (often called feature phones or dumbphones) will disappear soon but they won't. When you look on emerging markets, smartphone penetration is as low as 20-30%. Majority of the population use a feature phone or even do not use a mobile phone at all. From the perspective of smartphone producers, it is good news because there is still space to grow. However, in the light of upcoming 5G networks, there is a growing gap between highly promoted modern services and basic needs demanded by billions of non-smartphone users. And we have to cover their needs too as part of building a world society. We must address their needs to give them a chance to improve their lifes.

Although these basic phones look old fashioned with numbered buttons and a slightly updated design the opposite is true. Most of them use data transfers, social networks, traditional messengers and they even incorporate cameras to take photos. Is this the right way to raise new customers? Do they upgrade later to smartphones? It is difficult to say but it is true they will start using the services which will fit their needs. We think that it makes sense to give chance to platforms like KaiOS which bridge the gap between pure basic phones and smartphones. This was a reason why we decided to develop PhoneCopy for KaiOS and provide it for free. One day our customers will migrate to another phone and PhoneCopy can help them.

PhoneCopy.com is a public personal cloud service based on Syncfony platform.