This week, the new Commodore under CEO Peri Fractic (actor turned Youtuber Christian Simpson) announced the release of their latest product, a flip phone they called the Callback. And people online went nuts. Some love it, but most seem to hate it and the feedback has been overwhelmingly (very) negative. I have some thoughts too, so I thought I'd write them out here.
The device itself
I actually like it.
I used to own a Samsung Z230 flip phone in the late 2000s and I absolutely loved it. The new Commodore phone is basically the same form factor, so I like it just for this, but it also has a few other things going for it.
It has modern connectivity (LTE, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS), a decent enough SOC (it doesn't have flagship specs, but this is not a flagship phone - the SOC just needs to be "good enough", which I think it is), and it's running the Linux-based Sailfish OS, which is a bit less open than I'd like in an operating system, but it can apparently run (most) Android apps, so there's a huge software library available. And it comes with a user-replaceable battery! It's sad that this is even worth mentioning as a feature, but that's the world we live in right now.
But a Linux flip phone in a flip phone with a keyboard and decent modern connectivity and specs? Sounds perfect for me. I never like the touchscreen-only approach, and if I could have a phone that does all the things modern phones do in a small but usable form factor with a physical keyboard, I'd be happy. I'd also be fine with T9, it takes some getting used to but I was pretty fast at typing messages back then.
Just in terms of what this device is and what it's supposed to be able to do, I really like it and I would actually be tempted to get it, because it ticks a lot more boxes of what I want from a phone for me than whatever Samsung, Google or Apple have to offer.
However...
Everything else
Let's start with the price. 499€/$ on preorder (excluding tax) is way too high for what this device is. 199 would be ideal, 299 would be acceptable, but 499 is a non starter. I get that they're manufacturing small quantities and so they can't profit from the economy of scale, but that's still way more than I'm willing to pay.
Then there's the fact that it's marketed as a "digital detox" device, which means that the installation of social media apps, email apps and even browsers is blocked at the OS level, according to their FAQ. And that's completely inacceptable for me. It would be fine if they weren't preinstalled because of the whole digital detox angle, but outright blocking them from ever being installed? With that, they already lost me. If I want some random guy in California to decide what I can and cannot do with the thing that I bought, I'll buy an iPhone. And I don't have an iPhone precisely because of this.
I'd also like to know how exactly this fits into the "Commodore" branding. Did the C64 prevent certain software that the company didn't like from running? Did the Amiga block email? Did these machines set up rules for what you were and were not allowed to do with them? I don't think so.
And then the marketing itself. I get that they're going for a 2000s Frutiger Aero aesthetic, because it's a flip phone, but... why? What does that have to do with Commodore? The first product from this company was a replica of a 1982 computer, and now all of a sudden they're jumping forward by 25 years to a time period when Commodore didn't even exist anymore. That's just confusing. And it doesn't help that all the pictures of the phone and everything surrounding it feel just so cheap. A lot of people called them AI generated slop, and I don't know if they are AI generated or not, but they're certainly mostly CG and feel pretty cold and lifeless as a result. I get the same vibes here that I get from Apple's high-gloss keynote events. And I don't like it.
I could go on, but these are my main thoughts. I actually like the device itself, but the price is too steep and there are too many questionable decisions surrounding it that put me off. I'm not as attached to the Commodore brand as some other people are, but even I am wondering why this has the Commodore name on it. This sounds more like a Christian Simpson device. It's something he wants and because he now runs a tech company he just decides to make it, no matter if it makes sense for the brand or not.
I'm still curious enough about the device itself that I'm looking forward to the reviews, For all we know, this could be a very capable phone. And I would guess that they are going to soften their stance on the whole "browsers and emails are blocked" nonsense if there's enough backlash. After all, my 2006 Samsung flip phone could receive emails and had a (rudimentary) browser, and there is no reason for this phone not to have that.
I just hope that if this fails, it doesn't tank the whole company. That would be a shame.
There's one more point I'd like to make in their defence. Some people seem to have pretty unrealistic expectations of what this company can and cannot produce at this point in their existence. I read some comments online that they should bring out a new floppy disk drive, or even make all new CRTs.
And yes, these are products that people in the retro community would want, but... there are no more factories in the world that can manufacture floppy drive heads or picture tubes. They all disappeared, and with them the tools and the know-how of how to manufacture these things. You can't just call Sony and ask them to make new Trinitron tubes for you, because they decommissioned all the factories and tooling long ago. It wouldn't be impossible to spin up a new CRT factory of course, but it would be a massive undertaking requiring an upfront investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which this company doesn't have. And for what? For a product that's going to sell a few thousand times? Would you be willing to pay thousands of Dollars/Euros for a CRT so they can recoup the cost of building a new factory?
Developing a product from scratch is expensive, and manufacturing it is even more expensive, especially if it contains components that aren't readily available anymore and that need to be custom made. So putting something together that's already mostly available or can be made from standard components is likely the only thing they can realistically do at this point, until they build up the funds and the expertise to start developing products of their own.