Even as the smartphone market trends toward large touchscreens with 12-Megapixel cameras, a celebrity-driven movement is afoot to revive the simple flip phone of the early 2000s.
A number of celebrities have been spotted in recent months sporting phones with the simple clamshell design, including trendsetter Anna Wintour, influential editor-in-chief of American Vogue.
Wintour was photographed checking her flip phone at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York back in September.
Anna Wintour 35 million Net Worth rocks a flip phone...While others with $150.00 bank account care only about a phone pic.twitter.com/bGtwdv0Syb
— Wilmarie Sena (@thatssowilma) September 9, 2014
The image quickly touched off a wave of excitement online, with many users glad to see their obsolete phones had come back into fashion.
[anna wintour spotted using flip phone] "flip phones are back!!!"
— joie levieva-stan (@levievas) December 3, 2014
Meanwhile, Rihanna, Scarlett Johansson and Kate Beckinsale have also been spotted using flip phones.
Love Kate Beckinsale for still having the flip phone pic.twitter.com/CMc6r0h93h
— soldier (@rauhlinbieburr) August 12, 2013
Rihanna using flip phone in 2014#retrochic pic.twitter.com/5Z89vRJ2he
— Shady XV (@Vakii_M) December 5, 2014
The flip phone has been making a comeback, as has its 'ancient' cousin, the original Binataone Brick mobile phone from the early 1980s. There's a booming market for the Brick on eBay, where auctioneers routinely ask for north of $50 for the telecommunications relic.
Flip phones are also popular on eBay, with some models like the Nokia 8800 going for more than $150. Other models like the once-ubiquitous Motorola RAZR go for about $50 each.
The retro flip phone trend flies in the face of the current smartphone business, where many companies are producing “phablets” with larger screens and more processing power for mobile applications.
For instance, Apple's iPhone 6 was designed to be about 15 millimetres taller and nine millimetres wider than the previous version, the iPhone 5S. And for users who wanted to go bigger, Apple designed its iPhone 6 Plus to offer the same features as the iPhone 6, with a significantly larger screen.
The Samsung Galaxy S series has also grown in size with every new generation.
But for some – including a few celebrities - the simplicity of a flip phone is far more appealing.
The best part about a flip phone was that when someone pissed you off, you could hang up on them with an attitude
— Trent baker (@Trentbaker91) December 3, 2014
I love my dumb flip phone. I'd love it more if it had a rotary dial. Best locking feature EVER! @k0diak314 @Steven_Swenson
— Danger Saltine (@MarineReconDad) December 7, 2014
I love my flip phone. Small, reliable, but most importantly, cheap. Cheap cheap cheap. I love being cheap.
— Adriano Galliani (@GallianiACM) August 27, 2014
Best thing I saw today. Flip phone for the win pic.twitter.com/F5Dt5bt5zi
— Go_Duxx (@Go_Duxx) November 23, 2014