An Android, that wasn't even Google Android, and may even look like candy bar.
All it would do would be:
1. Phone
2. Contacts
3. WhatsApp
4. Brave Browser (or Firefox Focus)
Perhaps it would have a camera, but only sufficient for WhatsApp.
Perhaps GPS/Maps would be built in, but only accessible for WhatsApp "share my location".
The browser would open links and allow browsing, but would not integrate too deeply and would focus on security and battery life where updates may not be applied and signal is sometimes terrible.
Just the simplest phone, dirt cheap, durable, capable of communication in an age of WhatsApp.
It would also be a near perfect travel/emergency phone for people in the West, and would likely have a huge market amongst outdoor types.
Since Whatsapp joined Facebook, they are now only interested in ideas that have potential billion dollar upsides. The phone you are suggesting is more likely to be built by an entrepreneur who's eyeing a small but steady business.
A few weeks ago I left my phone in the office on a Friday evening. I was going to go back for it but decided I'd try the weekend with a dumb £20 samsung lozenge phone for the weekend. It was something of a revelation.
The biggest issue was that I didn't have Whatsapp, either on my phone or on my laptop, as my main phone had shut down and so the keys were offline.
I started searching around for a cheap phone that would run Whatsapp, but they retired all the non-smartphone stuff last year. If someone sold a $50 phone that just had voice, text and Whatsapp I think they would sell a shit-ton, especially in the developing world...
Not sure that would be much better than existing cheap rugged android phones?
Internet.org-like plans haven't exactly gotten much love, and that seems to me like the biggest differentiator Facebook could introduce. (purely business-wise, their brand name of course could help, but that's not much actual merit IMHO)
An Android, that wasn't even Google Android, and may even look like candy bar.
All it would do would be:
1. Phone
2. Contacts
3. WhatsApp
4. Brave Browser (or Firefox Focus)
Perhaps it would have a camera, but only sufficient for WhatsApp.
Perhaps GPS/Maps would be built in, but only accessible for WhatsApp "share my location".
The browser would open links and allow browsing, but would not integrate too deeply and would focus on security and battery life where updates may not be applied and signal is sometimes terrible.
Just the simplest phone, dirt cheap, durable, capable of communication in an age of WhatsApp.
It would also be a near perfect travel/emergency phone for people in the West, and would likely have a huge market amongst outdoor types.