Ahhh...Trying to turn back the clock, are we. . .Next thing you know someone will be pining for an 8-track... .. . =->

The batteries wouldn't last a whole lot longer because the transmitter is what uses most of the power anyway. Still, the battery might last a little longer and the phone could definitely be made smaller, lighter and cheaper. The manufacturers are constantly trying to find new gagets to be the "latest thing". There's not a big market for minimalist phones and it would be hard to even give them away being that they already give away phones with lots of features.

Except for cameras, most phones are built around a processor/display system, with most of the features in software, although it could be possible to devise a simpler processor/display system, the cell industry has rasied the bar on the lowest basic phone to hacve the advanced processors, and latetly, colour displays.

I strongly agree, cell phone is not a toy, and it would be much cheaper,why pay for a cellular phone with mp3, mp4 comparability when people dont this features.

The thing is though, the phone companies want these features, as they can sell things like downloads for them, and a certain set of customers do want them, and buy them and the added services for them..

When you think of it, most of the mobile phone practically give the phone away. My, $90 phone was free. The mobile phone companies make their big bucks on selling you the service plan and selling you everything else, including ringtones, music, video, covers, web access and other assorted goodies. Even if you don't buy the gadgets, you still have a high price for the basic service.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/29/jitterbug-because-cell-phones-scare-old-people/