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Concept
Feature phone
Summary
A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of mobile phone that retains the form factor of earlier generations of mobile telephones, typically with press-button based inputs and a small non-touch display. They tend to use an embedded operating system with a small and simple graphical user interface, unlike large and complex mobile operating systems such as Android from Google or iOS from Apple. Their functions are limited compared to smartphones, which integrate the phone with an internet communications device.
Feature phones can provide functions including Internet capabilities and mobile games.
Prior to the popularity of smartphones, the term 'feature phone' was often used on high-end mobile telephones with assorted functions for retail customers, developed at the advent of 3G networks, which allowed sufficient bandwidth for these capabilities.
Depending on extent of functionality, feature phones may have many of the capabilities of a smartphone, within certain cases.
In developed economies, feature phones are primarily specific to niche markets, or have become merely a preference; owing to certain feature combinations not available in other devices, such as affordability, durability, and simplicity.
A well-specified feature phone can be used in industrial environments, and the outdoors, at workplaces that proscribe dedicated cameras, and as an emergency telephone. Several models are equipped with hardware functions; such as FM radio and flashlight, that prevent the device from becoming useless in the event of a major disaster, or entirely obsolete, if and when 2G network infrastructure is shut down. Other feature phones are specifically designed for the elderly, and yet others for religious purposes.
In Pakistan and other South Asian countries, many mobile phone outlets use feature phones for balance transfer referred as easyload.
In developed economies, fashion and brand loyalty drove sales, as markets had matured and people moved to their second and third phones.
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