Barbie phone launched to help teens beat smartphone addiction
Technology
New phone has no front camera, only one game and very limited access to internet
(Web Desk) - Thinkers and tech experts join hands to launch a new phone that aims to beat smartphone addiction - a very pink Barbie phone.
The Barbie-branded phone has been launched in the UK and Europe with the aim of helping young people to break away from their smartphones.
The manufacturer of this new phone, HMD, made it a very basic device with no front camera, only one game and very limited access to the internet. So, the most stand-out feature of the phone is - its pink Barbie-themed.
HMD, the company that also makes Nokia phones, says it’s their way to tap into what it calls a “surge” of people wanting a smaller “digital impact” on their lives.
But others say the goal has been achieved by teaching people how to limit the use of phones instead.
Parents and campaigners have been talking about the growing use of smartphones among children and how most of the children born in the digital age are addicted to their digital devices.
Their concerns range from the suspicion that children will end up with shorter attention spans, to the fear that they might be exposed to harmful or illegal content.
Some schools are taking steps in this direction, like Eton College, which provides some of its pupils with "brick" phones – also sometimes called feature phones – which can only send and receive texts and calls.
Lars Silberbauer, a senior executive at HMD, says it is these trends his firm is responding to.
"We've seen this surge which started in the US coming to Europe, that more and more people actually want to not be having a digital experience all the time," he said.
Silberbauer said his motives are truly noble with the new phone and he is also looking for the possibility of adding WhatsApp to the Barbie phone someday.
The phone is a mirror-fronted flip phone and has no app store or touch screen. It has no social media at all, and the phone cannot receive anything more advanced than SMS messages.
That means no text messages with "read receipts" or the function to see when someone is typing.
The phone has a launch price of £99 ($130) in the UK – twice what you would pay for a non-branded Nokia feature phone.
There is already a growing market for “dumbphones” that are aimed at a digital detox with minimal or basic features.
The Barbie phone will only attract more people to buy it because of its design, as per the company.
