Nokia 8110: Back to the future

Will the remake of the old Nokia 8110 feature phone become the first next gen phone? It's not impossible.

When Apple made a blast with the iPhone a little over a decade ago, it changed everything. Suddenly the number pad from the 50s was gone, and a new touch era began.

Business phones already had apps and full size keyboards, but something about the ease of use made the touch phone worth it.

Now the Nokia 8110 is making a blast from the past.

Some asked:

What's the purpose of physical numpad in a modern phone? Inputting text with T9? Pure nostalgy?

Yeah - the keypad? Don't know. But, yes. Probably nostalgia.

But who cares. You don't need the numpad. You don't even need the touch screen. Nokia 8110 has Google Assistant.

That means you can just say "call mom" or "send Leo a message that I'll be 5 minutes late". Or you can ask "do I have unread emails" or "what's the news today?"

This could - could - be the moment where voice began to replace touch as the main interface of your phone.

It probably isn't. I can almost guarantee you that it isn't. But it would be amazing if it was.

Just like the first usable touch screen phone dropped the keyboard, perhaps the first usable voice phone has to be one that drops the touch screen.

After all, it's a phone. Isn't talking to it more natural?

06.06.2018