Revival of Blackberry nostalgia and keyboard fuels smartphone startups
Clicks Communicater smartphone on screen. Start Clicks Technology makes a Blackberry phone.
Clicks
When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, physical keyboards quickly gave way to touchscreens and replaced mainstream smartphones.
Now, a new wave of startups, including UK-based Clicks Technology and Chinese firm Unihertz, are bringing them back and creating a niche for phones with tactile buttons.
The move away from buttons once seemed final. Blackberry, long known for its keyboard phones, stopped hardware production in 2016 and stopped software services in 2022.
But fans of its square-shaped phones with its distinctive keyboard remain loyal to the brand. r/Blackberry The subreddit has 25,000 members sharing gadget tips and nostalgia.
Jung Younbo, a communications professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the renewed interest reflects a broader pattern.
“We tend to use our smartphones as a kind of tool to express ourselves,” Younbo said. He added that as phones become more embedded in daily life, the trends around them increasingly resemble cyclical fashion trends.
For some users, the appeal is more to control than nostalgia. Clicks Technology co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Gadway said about 45% of their customer base has never used a phone with a physical keyboard.
“They’re looking at this not as a nostalgia play, but as a completely new way to use their phones more consciously,” he told CNBC.
Reduce screen time
That sense of intent is part of the appeal of Chonnie Alfonso, a 23-year-old content creator who often wears retro gadgets. YouTube channel.
He said switching to a device with a keyboard caused friction and made him rethink how often he used his phone.
Having “an extra barrier of discomfort that adds more steps to the thought process” rather than “an accessible slab of glass in your hand” has become a way to reduce the time he spends on his phone, Alfonso told CNBC.
Doomscrolling is less suitable for square-shaped, BlackBerry-style smartphones. Alfonso said switching to a keyboard device helped him spend less time on social media and better control his schedule.
Clicks Technology’s Gadway said the company’s device emphasizes messaging and core functions, aiming to keep users focused on their original tasks rather than drifting to other apps.
He said the phone, which includes messaging apps in the home launcher, is designed to let users do what they originally planned to do rather than end up with a “side quest.”
“It’s about making the time you spend on your phone more valuable to you.”
Election and consolidation
Beyond behavior, the devices also revive features that have largely been lost in mainstream smartphones.
Instead of wireless connectivity, Clicks offer keyboards in multiple languages, swappable back covers, expandable memory card storage, and a physical 3.5mm headphone jack (features that modern smartphones mostly have), Gadway said. abandoned.
For 23-year-old audiophile Wei Lun Ng, having a phone that supports wired headphones has become a practical choice.
“I guess it doesn’t cut it that much because when your battery gets low, for example on a wireless headset or a wireless headset, it will start to cut out… [they’re] “It’s more convenient,” he said.
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He says wired headphones are also less likely to get lost compared to wireless headphones.
And they are cheaper. The cheapest model of Apple’s AirPods, which connect using Bluetooth, currently retails for $129, while wired headphones cost $19.
tactile communication
Unexpectedly, keyboards also attracted the attention of users with accessibility needs.
Some people with low vision or motor control issues find it easier to type with physical keys than touch screens and regain confidence in daily use, Gadway said.
People who make frequent typos may find physical keyboards helpful, said Younbo of Nanyang Technological University.
Although most smartphones offer automatic spelling correction, “people don’t really use it” [feature] because it replaces the word with completely different words that you didn’t even think of using,” he said.
Competition in niche market
The niche is getting more crowded. Companies like Zinwa Technologies and iKKO are joining Clicks and Unihertz by launching their own keyboard-equipped smartphones this year.
For enthusiasts like Alfonso, more competition could improve product quality.
Interest in phones with physical keyboards is still strong. Unihertz’s Kickstarter campaign for the second version of the Titan phone had attracted more than 8,200 backers and raised more than $4.8 million as of May 8, ahead of the campaign’s May 13 end date.
Clicks also exceeded its six-month pre-order goal within 30 days, the company told CNBC.
segment though is facing difficulties. Increasing demand for AI infrastructure has strained memory supply, increasing component costs.
Unihertz recently increased the price of the Titan 2, citing high memory costs. Clicks said it plans to keep its price steady and ease the pressure.
For now, smartphones with keyboards remain a small corner of the market. But their feedback shows that even in a world of uniform glass displays, some users are still looking for something they can feel.
