Both Samsung and LG have launched brand new flip-smartphones aimed at the elderly.
LG says it designed its Wine Smart handset after a round of market research found that many older consumers were intimidated by the small buttons and complicated features of many modern touch-screen smartphones.
A recent study by the US think-tank Pew found that as many as 15 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 13 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds in America don't use a smartphone.
The new Samsung Master Dual flip phone will sport two displays instead of one, one inside and another on the outer part of the phone. The inside display has a measurement of 3.3-inches while the outer one is of just 2.2-inches.
A 3MP camera has been featured on the back of the device, and a 1.3MP camera will be on the front for video calling and selfie snapping abilities.
An interesting feature of the device is that it can notify pre-set contacts with location if the phone is not used for a particular period of time.
There is no information about its chipset, RAM and memory availability details yet. The new fliphone won't cater to the flagship category of the company; but will stick to the feature phone segment eyeing budget conscious consumers.
The Samsung Master Dual is currently only available in Korea but the company says it will be soon available in other markets.
Significantly, LG also had launched a similar shaped flip phone earlier in the year. The LG Wine Smart Clamshell is based on Android KitKat 4.4 operating system and offers a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen with 1.2 GHz Quad-Core processor and an 8MP rear camera.
LG has restricted the phone only to Korean customers and there is no further announcement about its global availability.
