Motorola Listened, Made “Just a Phone”
The people have spoken. We don’t need a phone that plays live TV, lets us download MP3’s on-the-fly or even takes pictures. Just give us a simple phone that has a decent form factor, damn near stellar battery life, voice quality and reception. Motorola was the first major cellular phone manufacturer to answer the call (horrible pun somewhat intended).
Motorola recently released the MOTOFONE and it seems to be the perfect “just a phone.” Motorola really took usability into consideration when designing the phone. It features a high-contrast screen viewable in a variety of lighting conditions, a cleaned up UI with icon-based navigation and a loud speaker. Now I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that the MOTOFONE will sell extremely well and even comparatively to the RAZR or the new RIZR. Job well done Motorola.
Wow, for the first time… I’m impressed by a Moto phone… good catch Stammy.
I can’t wait for this, it’s a really impressive looking phone.
I really like this concept but I must say that is more why I am leaning toward the Q. If I had this phone with decent email capability I’d be fine.
My Treo 650 (as horrific as it is in operation) has so many bells and whistles that its insane. I’ve even added software to it, etc. After a year of use I complain everytime I “attempt” a phone call and wish my H button would work when I respond to an email on the road.
:)
At some point we need to scale back our geekiness huh?
You’re right, it’s about time someone released a mobile phone that was just that, a phone. Motorola has been coming up with some really impressive designs in recent times, don’t know what happened to Nokia their phones are really ugly. The only gripe I have is Motorola’s UI and messaging functions are usually crap. So if this one has had its UI cleaned up, I may just get one this year.
Looks very similar to my SLVR. And like Weisheng said, the UI isn’t the best I have seen and would be awesome if they did clean it up. I probably wont get one as soon as it’s out, but I hope there is a way to upgrade the UI.
I wonder if the “Software Update” on my phone works?
Slick phone.
We only need to scale back our geekiness if we can’t wield the power???
Wonder how good the UI looks now. Moto is known to have some ugly, slow UI (cough Razr cough)
Dimitry
I think the best UI I’ve used is actually Nokia’s. Sony Ericsson comes next, although the dictionary is a little wonky. Having invested so much in product design, I hope they’ve set aside some money for improvements to the actual user experience, which is just as important.
Yippie, that is a nice looking plain phone.
Yeah, I hear that message. If I need to take pictures, I have my Pentax Optio S6. If I need to listen to music, I have my iPod. But I’d rather not do either of those on a cellphone (the resolution of cell pics sucks and the limited space… eww)
But the retro nixie tube digits suck.
I don’t browse from my RAZR…it is just expensive/painful to connect/browse. I haven’t taken pics with the built-in camera…after seeing how bad they came out. This one looks good. Will give this one a try. I hope Motorola put some thought into UI.
To quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy, “This is fricking schweet.”
“If I had this phone with decent email capability I’d be fine.”
I agree completely. If this phone has email capabilities, I will buy it without a doubt. Hopefully good UI, slick, just a phone, email. All I need.
oh god that is just what i need.
That’s such a revolutionary idea! A phone that just makes calls! Why didn’t they think of that before?
Don Norman has my favorite quote on this-Today simplicity, tomorrow convenience. Tomorrow convenience, the next day simplicity.
Its true, we’re fed up with our smartphones and “features for the sake of features” phones. But how long before this phone gets embedded into our livees before folks start saying “it’s great! But if it just did….” -then the carriers jump on that as new opportunity to cram said features down our thoats at higher prices.
…anyway, convergence is a sticky issue. We’re always caught between simplicity and convenience. What we should be doing, if it’s at all possible, is to stop swinging the pendulum so far every time (this ‘just a phone’ seems like a drastic swing back towards simplicity). Instead, focus on activity centered design and, heaven forbid, *useful* features.
The fact that you can’t “just make a call” is because you have to dig through a menu, or hte address book is too complex, or a whole host of other features that are poorly designed. Less is not always better, but it’s certainly nice to have the choice of less features.
I was wondering if companies would ever do “plain” good phones which are just phones.
Motofone justifies my hopes ;)
I just want a cell phone WITH an address book! Not just contacts, but full-fledged address book. I want my names, phone numbers, addresses and email addressed in one place. I don’t care about listening to music (I have a radio), watching movies (I have a TV and DVD player), or sending email (I have a computer). Is there a phone out there somewhere like this???
Bluetooth??? does it have bluetooth?
-yoda