Folk,
I’ve got more proof that there is truly a trend towards smaller smartphones and
phone in general as I’d suspected in my blog article
entitled “Tech
Predictions of 2013 - 3D Printing and smaller smartphones”.
Taiwanese
company WiMe has developed a
smaller phone called the Talkase
that attaches to your smartphone via a specially made case that's build as a
holster to fit both your smartphone and this smaller phone as explained “Huh?
Mini phone attaches to the phone you already have”, published October 24,
2014 12:15 PM PDT by Michael Franco, CNET
News and “One
phone just isn't enough: Credit card-sized handset piggy-backs on your main
mobile for when your battery dies”, published 27 October 2014 14:52 GMT By
Victoria Woollaston, UK DailyMail.
WiMe’s Talkase
currently has a kickstarter funding round that began on Tuesday October 21 2014
to raise some US$60,000 to make the Talkase.
As of Sunday November 9th 2014 they've surpassed that goal, reaching
some US$112,818 with the help of some 2,106 pledges.
With
only eleven (11) days to go until the campaign ends on Thursday, November 20th
2014 12:44 PM EST, this Project is already set to achieve its lofty dream of
making a Talkase
with a smartphone case that can carry the Talkase
not only for the Apple iPhone but other smartphones as well.
This
calculator-sized phone that’s can get lost behind your Credit Card pairs via
Bluetooth with your smartphone and makes calls, making this device compatible
with virtually any smartphone. The user also has the option of inserting a
micro-SIM card to make it a fully-function phone when your smartphone has died.
So
why do I feel this may become a hit?
I’ll
explain that and why the WiMe’s Talkase
may mark the trend towards smaller Bluetooth accessories that function as
mini-phones, particular smartwatch that can answers phone calls like the
Samsung Galaxy Gear as explained in my Geezam
blog article entitled “Samsung’s
Galaxy Gear S Smartwatch coming to Jamaica while reppin’ for Tizen”.
WiMe's Talkase -
Bluetooth tethered Micro-SIM phone with physical buttons easier to handle
The
idea may seem far-fetched to CNET Editor Michael Franco, but to me as a Jamaican
it make perfect sense in our country, where you're like to get jacked for just
flashing a JA$20,000 smartphone in public as noted in my blog article entitled
“How
smartphones are stolen and IMEI changed – Uninformed Jamaican Police Tracking
Jamaicans even as GOJ ID Registration by Telecom Providers needed”.
For
this reason and the fact that despite the explosion of interest in smartphones
in Jamaica since 2013 now culminating with the DL750 as noted in my blog article
entitled “JA$13,688
Digicel DL750 Launched – Alcatel One Touch Pop C3 with Free TV App, DL600
issues in X-Men Origins First Class Days of Future Past”, we're still not
totally into these easy-to-break devices.
Jamaicans,
a lot like Americans I suspect, rarely have both a Data and Voice Plan or Credit
on the same smartphone. Jamaicans, from my experience, tend to walk with a
second simpler feature phone to make regular phone calls. Americans, again from
comments on my Social Media, tend to use VoIP Apps such as WhatsApp and Viber
to make low-cost VoIP Calls across the country.
A
trend that we’re catching on too as well up until the point Viber and Nimbuzz
got the axe by Telecom Provider Digicel and telecom Provider LIME as noted in
my blog article
entitled “LIME
and Digicel blocking all VoIP Services - How Telecom Providers can make money
from Regularizing Paid VoIP Services”.
Truth
be told, here in Jamaica it's really only the Teenagers (ages 13 to 17) and a
few Millennials (ages 18 to 28) that have any knowledge of VoIP Apps for making
Local or International calls on their Data-enable smartphones. So the vast majority
of Jamaicans who aren't so tech-savvy and trusting of such a delicate,
breakable smartphone who have made the switch to a smartphone still tote around
a regular feature phone.
Smaller phone for Voice
Calls – Smaller, Cheaper with Bluetooth is what feature phones should have been
Why
Americans would do the same isn't clear albeit it’ll definitely happen.
I
suspect because probably like a smartwatch that can make phone calls using a Bluetooth
Headset, Americans may, like Jamaicans, also find it a tad more convenient to
whip out the smaller talk-only Talkase
from its holster rather than reach for this big cumbersome smartphone, fiddle
for a few seconds to unlock the screen and answer the phone. Also, given its diminutive
size, it’s less like to run out of charge and the last the whole day.
With
the Talkase,
it’s just to press the physical buttons and the phone answers the call......just
like a regular feature phone. Just as easy to have the phone as a smartwatch
that you just tap and answer with your Bluetooth headset, making the Talkase
a kind of singing canary for such Bluetooth-paired products that can double as
phones, such as smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Gear S!
The
Talkase
is merely 5.5 mm (0.2") thick, has a standby time of 100 hours and can give
you 2.5 hours of talk, rather poor for a Bluetooth attachment that mimics a
regular feature phone. But the ultimate deciding factor may be the price.
At US$25 (£15.50, AU$28) set to increase to
US$49 (£30, AU$55) for BOTH the Talkase
and the smartphone case with holster, when the kickstarter concludes, it'll
STILL be in the same ballpark as a lot of feature phones and even some smartphones
on Ebay.
Not
only will the WiMe's Talkase
be wildly successful by shipping date December 2014, it'll also spark interest
in makers of smartwatches that double as wristwatch- sized Bluetooth enabled
smartphones. Even better, it may see the return of the humble feature phone
tricked out with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and will mark the move towards cheaper
Bluetooth Accessories becoming more commonplace.
Here’s
the link:
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