2010 Internet - Time Machine Browser - theinternetfrom2010.com
Feature Phones+

Product

Feature phones

What most of the world actually carried

Supported

Smartphones were still a minority in 2010: roughly one in five phones sold worldwide that year was a smartphone, according to Gartner. Most people carried feature phones, from Nokia candybars and Samsung and LG sliders to Motorola flips, with T9 texting, a basic camera, a WAP or Opera Mini browser and polyphonic ringtones.

Illustration for Feature phones
Original illustrationNot a screenshot
Maker
Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson
Released
2010
Platform
Proprietary firmware with Java ME apps

Specifications

TypingT9 predictive text on a numeric keypad
InternetWAP or Opera Mini over 2G/3G
AppsJava ME games and Snake
CameraTypically 1 to 3 MP

Related

  • ProductSupported

    Nokia 5230

    The cheap touchscreen Nokia that sold in the tens of millions

    Nokia was still the world's biggest phone maker in 2010, and phones like the 5230, a low-cost touchscreen Symbian handset, were why. It sold enormously across Europe, India and Asia to people who...

  • TechnologySupported

    Opera Mini

    The browser that made feature-phone internet bearable

    Opera Mini compressed pages on Opera's servers before sending them to the phone, which made it the most-used mobile browser in the world in 2010, especially on feature phones in India, Indonesia,...

  • TechnologySupported

    Texting in 2010

    Trillions of SMS messages, unlimited plans, and T9 thumbs

    Text messaging peaked in the early 2010s: Americans sent well over a trillion texts a year, teenagers sent thousands a month, and unlimited texting was the must-have plan feature. On feature phones...

Mentioned by

Sources
  1. 1.
    Feature phone · WikipediaWikipedia
  2. 2.
    Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 31 Percent in 2010 · GartnerCompany · 9 Feb 2011

    Smartphone OS share for 2010: Symbian 37.6%, Android 22.7%, RIM 16.0%, iOS 15.7%, Microsoft 4.2%.

  3. 3.
    T9 (predictive text) · WikipediaWikipedia
  4. 4.
    SMS · WikipediaWikipedia
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