This is pretty much exactly what the Light Phone 2 is, specifically designed to not be a constant distraction machine that the modern smartphone is.

There would probably be a market for a truely “essential” smart phone as you mentioned that’s somewhere in between a feature flip phone and an iPhone. Plus a battery that lasts for a week (depending on call usage I guess?).

Probably a business opportunity there.

We are making that at Symmitree(.com) but for the refugee / aid market.

Rugged, 4 day battery, repairable, stripped down OS/app store for << $100

Kinda been enjoying using the prototype as a daily driver over my iPhone

That's interesting. I hope it succeeds.

Who were you thinking for the end point partner (which retails/delivers the devices)? Possibly with governments or NGOs or local marketplaces?

Maybe you could help finance it with a western version of a stripped down smartphone. But that seems to be a significant shift from what your vision/offering is. It's best to do one thing at a time.

Isn't that basically Tom's shoes' business model?

I wonder if batteries are still being made for the GSM phones from just before the iPhone came out. They might work, and are probably available on fleaBay.

Hopefully GSM isn't going the way of AMPS anytime soon.

In the US, GSM (ie 1G and 2G) are already more or less gone; 3G (UMTS) is in the midst of the shutdown process.

In the EU, however, it looks like Vodafone intends to provide 2G through at least 2025.

https://www.multitech.com/documents/publications/marketing-g...

2G is already turned off in Australia and being phased out elsewhere (they need the spectrum for 5G and 6G). 3G is the minimum available.

2g is basically disabled in the US. Go out in the country, signal will be atrocious. Anything outside of a metro seems to require walkie talkies now. I've tried att, vz, tmobile, and sprint, but there's a nice spot I liked to go fishing where I could make phone calls up until ~2008 or so. Traveling around recently I've noticed this anytime I was in an area that had <5000 population.

call it "justaphone" and testify!

Or "POP" for Plain Old Phone

I just want better control over the processor. I'd be happy with a modern processor, running at 10% clock speed and 50% voltage or less. I had a sony phone back in the early days of android where after rooting I could actually tune the processor parameters, and I went from 1 to 4-5 days battery life. I haven't been able to find a way do it on my current phone due to lack of root.

I don't care about having a super responsive phone, or a thin one. Just a utility. Something like the ulephone armor series but without the sketchy bloatware.