Paris (AFP) - They fit in a pocket, have batteries that last all
week and are almost indestructible: old-school Nokias, Ericssons and Motorolas
are making a comeback as consumers tired of fragile and overly-wired smartphones
go retro.
Forget
apps, video calls and smiley faces, handsets like the Nokia 3310 or the
Motorola StarTec 130 allows just basic text messaging and phone calls.
But
demand for them is growing and some of these second-hand models are fetching
prices as high as 1,000 euros a piece.
"Some
people don't blink at the prices, we have models at more than 1,000 euros. The
high prices are due to the difficulty in finding those models, which were
limited editions in their time," said Djassem Haddad, who started the site
vintagemobile.fr in 2009.
Haddad
had been eyeing a niche market, but since last year, sales have taken off, he
said.
Over
the past two to three years, he has sold some 10,000 handsets, "with a
real acceleration from the beginning of 2013".
"The
ageing population is looking for simpler phones, while other consumers want a
second cheap phone," he said.
Among
the top-sellers on the website is the Nokia 8210, with a tiny monochrome screen
and plastic buttons, at 59.99 euros.
Ironically,
the trend is just starting as the telecommunications industry consigns such
handsets to the recycling bins, hailing smartphones as the way ahead.
Finnish
giant Nokia, which was undisputedly the biggest mobile phone company before the
advent of Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy, offloaded its handset division to
Microsoft this year after failing to catch the smartphone wave.
But
it was probably also the supposedly irreversible switch towards smartphone that
has given the old school phone an unexpected boost.
-
'Back to basics' -
For
Damien Douani, an expert on new technologies at FaDa agency, it is simply
trendy now to be using the retro phone.
There
is "a great sensation of finding an object that we knew during another era
-- a little like paying for vintage sneakers that we couldn't afford when we
were teenagers," Douani told AFP.
There
is also "a logic of counter-culture in reaction to the over-connectedness
of today's society, with disconnection being the current trend."
"That
includes the need to return to what is essential and a basic telephone that is
used only for making phone calls and sending SMSes," he added.
It
is also about "being different. Today, everyone has a smartphone that
looks just like another, while ten years ago, brands were much more
creative".
It
is a mostly high-end clientele that is shopping at French online shop Lekki,
which sells "a range of vintage, revamped mobile phones".
"Too
many online social networks and an excess of email and applications, have made
us slaves to technology in our everyday life. But Lekki provides a solution,
allowing a return to basic features and entertainments," it said on its
website.
A
Motorola StarTac 130 -- a model launched in 1998 -- and repainted bright orange
was recently offered for 180 euros, while an Ericsson A2628 with gold coloured
keys for 80 euros.
"We
have two types of profiles: the 25 to 35 year-olds attracted by the retro and
offbeat side of a telephone that is a little different, and those who are
nostalgic for the phone that they used when they were younger," said
Maxime Chanson, who founded Lekki in 2010.
"Some
use it to complement their smartphone, but others are going for the vintage,
tired of the technology race between the phone makers."
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