Young people advocate "digital detoxification" and the functional mobile phone market in the United States is making a comeback.

CTOnews.com, August 27 (Xinhua) at the beginning of this year, there was a trend among Gen Z and millennials in the United States to put down smartphones and switch to retro flip phones.

These young people have achieved "digital detoxification" by abandoning algorithm-driven social media streams and endless short video streams and embracing a simple and practical T9 keyboard. The trend stems from a video posted by TikTok user Sammy K, calling on the younger generation to pay attention to their digital health. Analysts Counterpoint Research said the video clearly touched the heartstrings of many people and revived the once declining and undervalued feature phone market.

The so-called feature phone market mainly refers to those retro phones, such as old-fashioned flip and slide phones. Due to their limited functions, these phones are much cheaper than ordinary iPhone or Android phones, and are both affordable and practical. Counterpoint predicts that this product category, which currently accounts for only 2% of the entire mobile phone market, will reach sales of $2.8 million (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 20.412 million yuan) by the end of 2023 and maintain stable sales in the short term.

Today, almost every American operator offers a certain type of feature phone, of which the TCL is the most.

According to Counterpoint, the biggest reason for the growth of the functional phone market is the influx of users who support minimalism and digital detoxification campaigns, followed by potential B2B sales (companies choose more cost-effective mobile phone distribution solutions), as well as tourists and casual consumers, who just want a cheap and convenient device. It is unclear whether these sales figures will last for a long time, but what is certain is that Gen Z and millennials have not only said it on TikTok, but have actually done it.