People born after 1995 (Generation Z) did not experience the heyday of flip phones, but try to bring them up to date in a desire to disconnect with their smartphone.
In a surge of nostalgia and a desire to free themselves from social networks, some users of Generation Z are swapping their “smartphone” for a good old flip phone. A trend that people born after 1995 explain very simply.
The flip phone makes its “comeback”
We thought it relegated to the rank of antiquity, but the flip phone – the good old feature phone of the 2000s – is experiencing a strong comeback with users born after 1995. A fascination that finds its source in the simplicity of the product and its ability to keep in touch with loved ones, without being drawn into the infernal spiral that can be social networks and notifications of all kinds.
The confidentiality it offers is also a strong argument in its favor. Generation Z grew up with smartphones and could always be “traced” in their interactions. The return to the flip phone simply allows us to escape, without having the mental load that smartphones sometimes exert on us. A “liberation”, in a way.
For Jackie Kates, head of marketing at HDM, the company that owns Nokia, people just like the idea of being less available:
“We attribute this change to the fact that many smartphone users are beginning to recognize that they spend too much time glued to their devices and have a strong desire to disconnect in order to be fully present and improve the quality of their social interactions. »
On TikTok, Sammy Palazzolo, an 18-year-old college student, doesn’t hide her enthusiasm for flip phones by urging people who watch her to get one. A video that now records more than 3 million likes, 28,000 comments and 72,000 shares. She explains going out only with flip phones during parties with her friends:
“It takes all the bad things out of college and brings in all the good things of a phone, which is connecting with people and taking pictures and videos. »
At the microphone of CNN, another 18-year-old student says he is trying to convert his sisters to this new trend to relive the days of the flip phone. For him, “People were more involved with each other than today with social networks. People seemed to talk to each other more and everything was more authentic and spontaneous”.
A spontaneity that some try to find on social networks with applications like BeReal.
Folding smartphones as a successor?
Back in 2023 where Samsung reigns supreme in the folding smartphone market. The latter, in particular the Galaxy Z Flip 4, bring back the so satisfying clamshell format, but remain smartphones. Generation Z does not seem to favor the format of the flip phone so much, but rather its ability to be less addictive and less intrusive in their lives…
The question of price is not negligible either. It is now possible to find flip phones for less than 30 euros, where a Galaxy Z Flip 4 is sold for 1,000 euros.
In 2022, IDC announced that the folding smartphone market is expected to reach 27.5 million units shipped by 2025, with a total market value of $29 billion, representing a compound growth of 70% between 2020 and 2025. By then, the folding format, however, should not represent more than 4% of the total smartphone market.
CNN
