Pressing Rewind: Stripped-Down Mobile Phones Enjoy Amazing Renaissance! #privacy

Counterpoint: global sales of featurephones were estimated at a stunning 1bn in 2021, up from just 0.4bn in 2019 #tech #Smartphones #featurephones #retro

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 6, 2022

Conversely, worldwide sales of smartphones contracted by 12.5% in 2020; 2021 saw 1.4bn units shipped #Apple #Android #privacy #tech

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 6, 2022

Analysis: the remarkable resurgence in the popularity of the featurephone defies predictions, but the novelty of having one's every move tracked, packaged and sold by Big Tech is starting to wear thin #privacy #BigTech

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 6, 2022

To watch: any electronics manufacturer who can produce a privacy-centred, tactile #smartphone stands to win significant and sticky market share; the thirst for a genuinely different offering is palpable https://t.co/L4S0X44upP

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 6, 2022

Passport to Nowhere: Why BlackBerry’s Plug-Pulling is a Silent Catastrophe

2022 is not even a week old, but it has already birthed one of its most significant stories: the implementation of a decision promulgated by BlackBerry Limited (‘BlackBerry’) on 9^th September 2020 that mobile devices running any of its proprietary operating systems ‘will no longer reliably function’ as of 4^th January this year. Exactly what this means remains to be seen, but it is clear that the Canadian company formerly known as Research in Motion is effectively terminating its distinct presence in the smartphone and tablet sector.

The implications of this move may at first glance appear to be minor. BlackBerry’s market share – 37% as recently as September 2010 in the United States – has long collapsed under the onslaught of the iPhone and other touchscreen-centric devices; the smartphone industry will scarcely register a blip at BlackBerry perfecting its long march into obscurity.

However, the de jure demise of ‘classic’ BlackBerry models – those later iterations running Android will continue to be supported – is actually far more important than most analysts seem to realise. In fact, it represents nothing less than a multi-tiered catastrophe; after some reflection, we at Mediolana have identified three specific reasons as to why this is the case:

1. Security. Phones built on BlackBerry 7.1 OS and BlackBerry 10 offered communications so impregnable that they spooked governments, and not merely those with authoritarian leanings as conventionally understood. The contrast with the operating systems comprising today’s duopoly – iOS and especially Google Android – could scarcely be more jarring; ironically, this state of affairs has arisen at a time when electronic privacy concerns have arguably never been greater, and demand for email providers based in Switzerland and the EU is booming.
2. Tactility. Something that has the global base of smartphone users in near-universal agreement: the experience of typing on a touchscreen remains frustrating and inaccurate; moreover, it is mangling the use of language possibly beyond repair. It retrospect, it seems absolutely horrifying that the ultra-elegant BlackBerry Passport – a keyboard-based handset which attracted the ultra-prestigious Red Dot: Best of the Best design award in 2015 – did not prove to be an iPhone killer.
3. Productivity. BlackBerry devices were synonymous with the highest tiers of business and administration, and with good reason: they resembled mini-computers which were text-focused and enabled exceptional levels of productivity. For all their technical brilliance, contemporary offerings from the likes of Apple, Samsung and the fast-swelling band of Chinese entrants such as Xiaomi risk becoming essentially televisions with fancy instant messaging (‘IM’) capabilities; like so much else today, this is a backwards step.

Love, Virtually – Two Point Zero: Can Mend Heal Your Broken Heart?

With Valentine’s Day now indubitably a global festival like perhaps no other – one that practically nobody can escape – and the contemporary relationship scene being characterised by epic churn, we at Mediolana felt moved by an article that our Creative Director & CSO recently came across in The New York Times on the topic of Mend, a new app and associated online community aimed at assisting people going through painful heartbreaks.

Mend (iOS launch date: July 2016) was founded by Ellen ‘Elle’ Huerta, a former Google employee who noticed – during a break-up of her own – that there was gaping gap in the app world for precisely this type of situation, while the corners of the Internet devoted to the topic were (and, we dare venture, still are) dominated by platitudes whose wisdom may only become apparent after a very long time indeed.

Huerta has correctly observed that while there is an ocean of fitness and (somewhat more tentatively) ‘brain-health’ software, vast areas of people’s love lives – beyond those pertaining to getting into a relationship in the first place – are wildly underserved. And on one level, Mend appears to be a great idea which taps into a clear cross-cultural need, having already been downloaded in over 100 countries; moreover, it certainly seems to have the backing of key players in Silicon Valley.

But after some reflection, in our opinion there is one clear potential issue with the concept: by turning such a sensitive area of human existence into yet another domain to be ‘managed’ electronically, apps such as Mend could make society overall that little bit less caring. Secure in the knowledge that there is now an algorithm to tend to their acute emotional needs, people may leave their friends in the care of a portal which can never actually be physically present, let alone listen to someone at close quarters who is truly suffering. Further iterations of Mend – an update is scheduled for this spring – must take this vital consideration into account if the noble original purpose of this technological marvel is not to be subverted.

App War: Facebook Launches Own Mobile App Portal

https://twitter.com/#!/Mediolana/status/200545953546125314