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GOOD Design Daily: The World's Simplest Mobile Phone

Behold: John's Phone, the simplest mobile phone in the world.

Patrick James
By Patrick JamesNov 13, 2010
Patrick James
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Writing for PSFK, Floyd Haynes recounts his reversal from iPhone fanboy to smart-phone abdicator. The combination of muffled conversations, dropped calls, and a creeping feeling that constant connectedness was complicating his life prompted a quest for simplification. That's precisely what he found in John's Phone, the world's simplest mobile phone. It's made by the Dutch design company John Doe Amsterdam.

Here's a video of Haynes's first look at the phone.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e2TCLiDECw&feature=player_embedded

Wonderful. That it's a quad band phone capable of accepting any sim card allows it to work anywhere in the world (other than Japan). My only question is the necessity of the address book, which strikes me as a bit gimmicky; might a smooth, flat surface on the back of the phone achieved a more thorough sense of simplicity? It certainly would have been more elegant. Still, the thing is rather cute.

technologydesigncultureiphonecommunicationpsfkgood design dailyjohn's phonefloyd haynes

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