you can't get SMS

I need a 2 week battery life, LCD screen, SMS/pager thing, with a Blackberry physical keypad and no voice or apps - and a simple mute switch

So build your own. http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Smartphone/

Manufacturers are under no obligation to provide you with a device to your particular specification, unless of course you are the one paying them under contract them to do so.

> Manufacturers are under no obligation to provide you with a device to your particular specification

I don't think wishing that a niche was filled constitutes assuming that manufacturers have any obligation.

A niche that appeals to almost no one and alienates the telcos that manufacturers partner with.

So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

>A niche that appeals to almost no one and alienates the telcos that manufacturers partner with. So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

Okay? Who on earth said it wasn't? The original comment wasn't even particularly bitter about it. Saying you wish something existed doesn't preclude understanding the market-based reasons it doesn't.

It totally is working, but merely 'wishing' a product exists does not, IMO, imply that:

a) they think manufacturers have any obligation (moral or legal) to do so

b) that it should exist

c) that more people would use it

Maybe OP was just 'thinking out loud'.

>So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

That is not necessarily a good thing.

Why not?

Free markets are just a tool we came up with to serve us, the general public. Where they don't, we don't let them operate. A public utility should not be operating in a free market (and I'm glad they don't).

Who exactly is 'they' in this case? Also, what is the 'public utility' involved here? Wasn't the root comment talking about manufacturers?

It was in the context of telcos dictating rules to manufacturers.

So get an old blackberry and turn on call barring.