Business News Today Archives - Page 9 of 67

January 22, 2023

Twitter is down to fewer than 550 full-time engineers

Pedestrians outside the house Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Oct. 6, 2022.

David Paul | Bloomberg | Getty Photos

Twitter’s comprehensive-time headcount has dwindled to somewhere around 1,300 lively, functioning personnel, including much less than 550 whole-time engineers by title, in accordance to interior records considered by CNBC. All over 75 of the firm’s 1,300 staff are on go away together with about 40 engineers.

The firm’s believe in and safety staff, which tends to make coverage tips, style and design and solution adjustments with the aim of trying to keep all of Twitter’s people risk-free, is down to fewer than 20 whole-time staff.

Inner records show that there are also about 1,400 non-functioning staff of Twitter who are continue to remaining paid, but are no extended anticipated to fulfill their previous tasks at the social media organization. Several of them resigned when CEO Elon Musk despatched out a “pledge” asking them to dedicate to “hardcore” perform at Twitter 2. which includes extensive hours.

Musk has contradicted the internal documents obtained by CNBC in a collection of tweets, and claimed that Twitter now has about 2,300 whole-time operating staff and 1000’s of contractors. CNBC contacted Twitter for clarification and comment but did not right away hear again.

Under Musk’s administration, Twitter has slashed headcount by means of mass layoffs, other terminations and improvements that compelled a lot of to resign, such as the end of a get the job done-from-property for good policy that had been place in place less than previous CEO Jack Dorsey.

Prior to Musk led a $44 billion leveraged buyout of Twitter final yr, Twitter’s headcount stood at about 7,500 staff. Layoffs were rumored internally and anticipated to choose area no matter if Musk’s takeover went by way of or not. Having said that, Musk has reduce Twitter staff much far more than lots of expected — or by about 80{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} in accordance to the inner data and two new personnel who spoke with CNBC.

In accordance to an engineer who resigned from the firm, the decline of staff and lessened headcount will make it more durable to retain the services reliably whilst however developing new functions.

This particular person, who questioned to continue to be unnamed even though speaking about a prior employer, spelled out that the company’s code base is substantial, and it calls for awareness of various platforms and programming languages to manage different pieces of Twitter — promotion solutions as opposed to the core timeline, for occasion. Engineers’ skill sets, they stated, are not automatically transferrable across all of these. And it will be hard to prepare engineers soon after getting rid of so significantly institutional awareness, this individual extra.

In addition to close to 1,300 full-time operating staff members, Musk also has authorized about 130 men and women from his other companies, like Tesla, SpaceX and The Tedious Firm, as nicely as talent from enterprise resources and other corporations, to do the job at Twitter.

Since getting over Twitter, Musk has confronted a shareholder backlash at Tesla for staying distracted, for stirring up political controversy with his tactic at Twitter, and for providing billions of bucks worthy of of his Tesla shares to finance his Twitter takeover.

Clarification: This story has been up to date to note that the 1,300 folks are active, working staff members at Twitter. An additional 1,400 people are non-working, but compensated workers of Twitter.

January 21, 2023

Vox Media to lay off 7{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} of workforce

New York
CNN
—

Vox Media, the publisher of information websites these kinds of as Vox and The Verge, in addition to New York journal, will lay off 7{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} of its workforce, chief government Jim Bankoff mentioned in a Friday morning memo to personnel.

Bankoff stated the layoffs, which will consequence in about 130 individuals losing their roles, impacted a number of groups, which includes editorial. Those people who had their positions removed were being notified by way of electronic mail, followed by a later conference with a human means officer who would go over severance deals with them.

Bankoff told staffers the cuts were “due to the hard economic surroundings impacting our organization and market.”

“We are going through and count on extra of the same economic and money pressures that others in the media and tech industries have encountered,” Bankoff explained in his memo.

The union representing Vox Media employees stated it was “furious” about the announcement.

“We’re furious at the way the business has approached these layoffs, and are at this time talking about how to finest provide those people who just lost their careers,” the union stated in a tweet.

The media and technological know-how sectors have been battered in new months as advertisers tighten paying out amid broader economic uncertainty. That has led to widespread occupation cuts.

Google’s mother or father business Alphabet on Friday joined Huge Tech giants Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft in announcing layoffs. Alphabet mentioned it experienced made the choice to eradicate 6{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} of its workforce, which interprets to about 12,000 work opportunities.

Throughout the news industry, layoffs have been rampant. CNN, NBC Information, MSNBC, Gannett and some others have cut their workforces. The Washington Submit is also anticipated to announce a staff reduction quickly. And organizations that have not laid off staffers have taken robust steps to minimize investing.

Entertainment giants, this sort of as Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN’s mum or dad organization) and Paramount Worldwide, have also trimmed their workforces.

Bankoff said the difficult economy experienced pressured Vox Media to focus on its core business enterprise.

“Unfortunately, in this financial local weather, we’re not able to sustain assignments and spots of the business enterprise that have not carried out as expected, are much less main to the place we see the biggest possibilities in the coming yrs, or where we don’t have plenty of rationale to support ongoing financial commitment in what could be a extended downturn,” he wrote to employees.

“In spite of the perseverance of the lots of proficient individuals involved in these initiatives,” Bankoff added, “we want to scale back.”

January 19, 2023

Amazon job cuts: Read the memos

Amazon on Wednesday commenced the most current wave of position cuts in its corporate workforce in what is poised to be the largest round of layoffs in the firm’s history.

Staff members ended up notified of the cuts in email messages despatched by Doug Herrington, the firm’s globally retail chief, and human sources head Beth Galetti, CNBC verified. Amazon explained before this thirty day period that it will minimize extra than 18,000 work opportunities.

Amazon’s human sources and merchants divisions are probably to be among the the organizations most seriously impacted by the job cuts. The company expects to notify all influenced personnel in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica by the end of the working day, Galetti and Herrington mentioned in their memos.

Personnel in other regions could be knowledgeable afterwards. In China, for illustration, the enterprise will notify staffers after the Lunar New Calendar year.

The layoffs appear immediately after a time period of fast head depend growth at Amazon all through the Covid-19 pandemic. In November, CEO Andy Jassy stated the firm would start out eradicating roles, mainly in its equipment and recruiting companies.

Jassy is also undergoing a wide critique of Amazon’s charges as the enterprise reckons with an economic downturn and slowing expansion in its core retail company. Amazon froze hiring in its company workforce, axed some experimental tasks and slowed warehouse growth.

WW Retailers Group,

I want to send a be aware that right now we will be notifying workforce impacted by our decision to lessen our Amazon WW shops corporate headcount. Notification e-mails will be sent out to impacted staff shortly, and we hope all notifications in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica to be completed by conclusion of the day today. In other regions, we are subsequent authorized procedures, which may well include things like time for a session with worker representative bodies starting up as shortly as now and probably resulting in more time timelines to talk with impacted employees. And in China, we will notify workforce just after the Chinese New 12 months.

Even though it will be unpleasant to say goodbye to several of our talented colleagues, it is an essential aspect of a broader work to lower our expense to serve so we can proceed investing in the extensive choice, minimal rates, and rapidly transport that our consumers adore. In the course of Covid, our first precedence was scaling to meet the desires of our shoppers even though guaranteeing the security of our employees. I am unbelievably proud of this team’s do the job throughout this time period. Even though other companies could have balked at the limited-expression economics, we prioritized investing for prospects and staff in the course of these unprecedented occasions.

The exit out of Covid this earlier yr was challenging, with labor shortages, supply chain issues, inflation, and efficiency overhang from growing our achievement and transportation networks so considerably for the duration of the pandemic, all of which improved our cost to serve. As we head into 2023, we remain in unsure economic situations. Therefore, we have determined that we need to have to consider even further ways to enhance our cost structure so we can preserve investing in the client experience that draws in clients to Amazon and grows our business enterprise.

Our strategy to boost our price structure will unfortunately incorporate job reductions. It is painful and unusual for us to acquire this action, and I know how complicated this is on the folks impacted and their liked ones. Our purpose is to make positive every single impacted personnel is assisted in this transition, so for instance, in the U.S., we are offering offers that involve a 60-working day non-performing transitional period of time with comprehensive spend and gains, plus an further quite a few weeks of severance based on the duration of time with the corporation, a separation payment, transitional advantages, and exterior position placement support. I would like to personally thank every and absolutely everyone of you impacted by the strategy variations for your contributions to our shoppers and your broader crew.

Function reductions are a person of various steps we are having to reduce our price to serve. We are also increasing local in-stock of the most popular periods, building it simpler for clients to consolidate shipments for various goods, and increasing the strategies buyers can obtain the lower-priced day to day essentials they have to have to hold their households jogging, all with the aim of cutting down our community and shipping and delivery costs. And by bettering our expense composition, we are also capable to continue investing meaningfully in large progress spots these as grocery, Amazon Business enterprise, Obtain with Key, and health care.

To people who are remaining, I know this is a tough time for you, as well, and it can be critical we help one an additional. We are indicating goodbye to individuals we’ve worked carefully with, and there is a great deal of tricky perform forward as your innovate on behalf of clients. Although I would favor not to eradicate even a solitary function, we are creating these variations now to hold investing in enhancing the consumer encounter, which will bolster our business enterprise for the very long time period.

As I’ve shared with many of you, I have never been a lot more optimistic about the possibility in entrance of us. For more than 25 several years, we’ve innovated on behalf of clients, and in so many approaches, we are just obtaining started out. Decreasing our cost to provide will be a core precedence for us in the years ahead to fund even far more innovation. It is really not just about executing extra with a lot less, but rethinking how we provide our consumers, how we manage internally, and what new spots of innovation we spend in. Every single group has a purpose to perform in getting techniques to reduce expenses though enhancing variety, pricing, and delivery speeds. I am assured that Amazonians will provide their possession, innovation, and bias for action to this challenge, unlocking even a lot more price for customers.

Doug

All,

Right now we took the hard action of reducing roles across Amazon. When several teams are impacted, the bulk of job eliminations are in our WW Amazon Shops organization and our Men and women Encounter & Engineering (PXT) group.

Conversations with impacted personnel took spot all over the globe today, and this morning, Pacific Time, notification messages were sent to all impacted workers in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. We are giving impacted staff members with a quantity of methods, and PXT leaders will host region-certain details classes for the U.S. and Canada right now although leaders are setting up meetings with each individual impacted crew member. In other areas, we are following community processes, which could include things like time for session with personnel agent bodies and potentially consequence in for a longer period timelines to communicate with impacted personnel. In China, we will notify employees soon after the Chinese New Yr.

Our priority in the coming days is supporting those people who are affected. To help with the transition, we are providing offers that involve a separation payment, transitional positive aspects as relevant by country, and external occupation placement support.

Remember to go on to display the assist and treatment that I so normally witness in this article at Amazon. This is a really difficult time, so we motivate you to get to out to My HR with concerns and don’t forget that our Worker Guidance Plan (EAP) is offered 24/7 for cost-free and private assistance.

Beth

January 18, 2023

Falcon Heavy launch: SpaceX’s most powerful rocket returns to flight

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CNN
—

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the towering start auto acknowledged for its boosters’ aerial acrobatics and synchronized landings when returning to Earth, took to the skies Sunday, providing nationwide stability payloads to orbit for the US army.

The mission, named USSF-67, took off at 5:56 p.m. ET from Kennedy Room Middle in Florida, marking the fifth effective flight of the rocket recently dethroned as the world’s most strong operational start car or truck. This mission was initially marketed to start on Saturday, and the explanation for the just one-working day hold off was not promptly very clear.

The Falcon Heavy debuted to a lot fanfare in 2018 when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attached his particular Tesla Roadster as a take a look at payload on the launch. The motor vehicle is continue to in house, taking an oblong path close to the sunshine that swings out as much as Mars’ orbital path.

The rocket followed up that check mission with two launches in 2019 just before using a a few-yr hiatus the huge vast majority of SpaceX’s missions do not call for the Falcon Heavy’s amped-up electrical power. On the other hand, SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket released additional than 60 periods in 2022 alone, sending two teams of astronauts to room as very well as Starlink satellites and a variety of other spacecraft.

But SpaceX is now earning fantastic on valuable military start contracts it signed for the Falcon Significant yrs in the past. The rocket returned to flight in November with the launch of the US military’s USSF-44 mission, and Sunday’s liftoff was a abide by-up to that display screen.

“USSF-44 provided six payloads on just one satellite that progress communications, room climate sensing, and other systems into in close proximity to-geosynchronous orbits,” according to the military’s Room Functions Command.

And USSF-67 will make use of the very same sort of spacecraft deployed on USSF-44, identified as LDPE, which is fundamentally a bus for outer house that can carry scaled-down satellites. The Falcon Heavy also carried a communications satellite, identified as the Constant Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, for the US Space Drive.

Extra details about the satellites on Sunday’s mission were not promptly accessible.

With just about every launch, the Falcon Hefty rocket puts on a dramatic demonstrate again on Earth.

Soon after Sunday’s mission, the enterprise recovered two of the Falcon Large rocket’s to start with-stage boosters — the tall white sticks strapped together to give the rocket its heightened electricity at liftoff. Following expending most of their fuel, the facet boosters fell absent from the heart main and reoriented themselves to slice back again through the Earth’s ambiance.

As they approached the floor, the boosters reignited their engines and done a synchronized landing on ground pads around the Florida shoreline. It is a signature move for SpaceX, which routinely recovers and reuses its rocket boosters to travel down the price tag of launches.

SpaceX did not try to recover the heart booster due to the fact of gas needs.

The enterprise has not correctly retrieved all 3 boosters nevertheless, while it is appear near. The two side boosters designed a pinpoint, synchronized landing on floor pads just after an April 2019 mission, and the rocket’s centre booster touched down on a seafaring platform. But rough waves toppled it around.

For years, the Falcon Large was the world’s most effective operational rocket. But in November, NASA’s new moon rocket, termed Room Start Process, or SLS, stole that title with its inaugural start. SLS released the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the moon, paving the way for long run missions with astronauts on board.

When the Falcon Heavy offers off about 5 million pounds of thrust, SLS is places out as significantly as 8.8 million lbs of thrust — 15{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} a lot more than the Saturn V rockets that run the Apollo moon landings.

At its experimental amenities in South Texas, SpaceX is in the ultimate stages of making ready for the very first orbital start endeavor of its Starship spacecraft and Tremendous Weighty rocket. However the check flight nonetheless awaits remaining approval from federal regulators, it could elevate off in the coming weeks.

If thriving, SpaceX’s Starship would dethrone the SLS as the most strong rocket traveling right now.

The Starship program is expected to outpower each SLS and Falcon Significant. The forthcoming Super Hefty booster, which is made to vault the Starship spacecraft into room, is expected to set off about 17 million pounds of thrust.

It’s not all a opposition, having said that. Equally the SLS rocket and SpaceX’s Starship are integral to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon’s floor for the 1st time in 50 percent a century.

SpaceX has its own, ambitious vision for the Starship: ferrying individuals and cargo to Mars in hopes of just one working day setting up a everlasting human settlement there.

January 17, 2023

The steep plunge in used car prices — what it means, and what’s ahead

New York
CNN
—

Monitoring utilised automobile rates is enough to give any individual whiplash.

Since the get started of the pandemic and the resulting disruptions to new motor vehicle provide chains to start with sent charges soaring, employed vehicle costs posted their most significant once-a-year improve on file – up 45{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} in the 12 months ending in June 2021, according to the Shopper Price tag Index – prior to swinging to a 12-month drop of 8.8{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} in the most recent examining for December.

That was the most significant 12-thirty day period plunge in costs for applied vehicles since June 2009, when Normal Motors and Chrysler have been the two in individual bankruptcy proceedings and the economic climate was hemorrhaging a 50 {ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550}-million careers a thirty day period.

“It was a totally wild ride,” explained Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.com Inc., an on the internet methods for inventory and information and facts on vehicles.

Information from Edmunds displays the average selling price of a used vehicle purchase in December at $29,533, down virtually $1,600 from the history large of $31,095 arrived at in April 2022. Today’s typical made use of auto rate is about the same as the ordinary new car or truck price as not too long ago as 2010.

While the charges of late model utilised vehicles are down only 5{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} off their peak in accordance in accordance to Edmunds, the rate of more mature utilised vehicles, all those 5 many years or older, have fallen 15{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} or more from their peaks early in 2022.

Specialists say motives for the drop consist of greater desire charges that make it a lot more highly-priced to finance a car acquire, limiting need. CarMax

(KMX), the nation’s largest pure utilized vehicle vendor, has warned that the combination of higher price ranges and superior desire fees is building an affordability trouble for numerous prospective buyers, hurting total demand.

But the primary explanation for the drop in utilized car or truck selling prices is the amplified offer of new automobiles.

It was the deficiency of new auto inventory that drove up price ranges. Elements shortages, in particular for laptop chips, experienced choked off generation of new automobiles in a great deal of 2022, resulting in the least expensive stage of whole-year US new auto sales considering that 2011.

The small source of new vehicles induced an even greater bounce in the normal selling price of employed cars and trucks, as purchasers who would otherwise acquire new cars turned to the used motor vehicle market place.

“At a single issue it seemed that everybody who was heading to purchase new finished up obtaining utilised,” claimed Greg Markus, government vice president of AutoLenders, mother or father company of New Jersey’s biggest applied automobile dealership chain.

That bundled rental motor vehicle organizations, which right before the pandemic ordinarily bought about 10{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} or a lot more new cars for every calendar year. With confined stock of cars to market, automakers essentially stopped generating decreased-priced fleet gross sales, and even rental motor vehicle providers ended up forced to switch to the used automobile marketplace.

All that has started to adjust in current months. Automakers are reporting much more materials of the chips they have to have, and are producing and offering extra cars, such as a return of fleet revenue. In general, sales ended up up 9{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} in the fourth quarter when compared to a yr in the past, and virtually 6{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} better than in the 3rd quarter, according to Cox Automotive. And with additional purchasers acquiring the new vehicles they want, that means lessen demand from customers for applied cars.

Authorities say section of the decrease in utilised car costs is that the price tag will increase have been not sustainable and had been partly pushed by customers at utilised motor vehicle auctions overpaying for the restricted provide of made use of vehicles.

“There was nowhere for these prices to go but down,” claimed Markus.

There could be extra declines in employed motor vehicle costs in the months forward, as new auto inventories continue to construct. A single thing that could set a flooring below the made use of automobile price ranges: late model utilised cars will probable be in limited provide specified the decreased new motor vehicle output around the last 3 decades.

“The offer concern is still grim,” claimed Markus. For the reason that of that, “I don’t believe we’re having down to 2019 ranges,” he additional.

The run-up in made use of car or truck selling prices was a key driver in the nation’s in general inflation amount, incorporating about a total share position to the over-all enhance in buyer price ranges from April of 2021 as a result of May well of 2022. Now it’s a element supporting to carry down the speed of inflation, shaving far more than a third of a level off the overall charge in December.

This is clearly great news for those people wanting or needing to obtain a utilized motor vehicle, while it can have a destructive effect on motor vehicle buyers by decreasing the price of auto they hope to trade in. Edmunds demonstrates the common trade-in value in December down virtually $3,000, or 11{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550}, to $22,605, from the document significant hit in June of 2022.

That drop in the worth of trade-ins could also be a headwind on vehicle selling prices by reducing what prospective buyers are able to fork out.

January 16, 2023

Gen Z loves the flip phone

New York
CNN
—

First, it was disposable cameras. Then it was low-rise jeans. Now, Gen-Z’s latest “vintage” obsession is the flip phone – that mid-1990s era phone that has suddenly become oh so popular with millennials.

Today, these smaller, lightweight devices – some available for as little as $20 at big box retailers like Walmart and Amazon – are showing up in TikTok videos of young people unboxing them, bedazzling their cases just as earlier generations did, and filming tutorials on achieving a carefree, blurry aesthetic through the low quality camera.

But most importantly, they love the ability to disconnect – or as much as that’s even possible in 2023.

“I’m team flip phone revolution,” singer Camila Cabello tweeted Thursday, posing with a TCL flip phone, vintage. “Maybe I can write the theme song.”

Actress Dove Cameron, who rose to fame on the Disney Channel’s “Liv and Maddie” show, said in a November interview that she had switched to a flip phone. Spending too much time on her phone and looking at social media “is really bad for me,” she said.

“I found a little 90s, Matrix-y flip phone,” Cameron said. “I got a separate number for it, it’s really cheap and I think probably really sh*tty.”

Cameron said she unplugged and switched over because she found her social media presence “misleading.” The feeling is prevalent among Gen Zers – and its impact has been linked to a teen mental health crisis.

As smartphones and social media became more ubiquitous around 2012, so did the rate of depression among teens, psychologists say. Between 2004 and 2019 the rate of teen depression nearly doubled, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Sammy Palazzolo, 18, a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has a new routine with her phone when she goes out at night with friends.

She and her friends listen to the latest music on their smart phones as they get ready. Then, when it’s time to leave, they leave those smart devices behind.

Instead, they contact each other only through their flip phones throughout the night, and take pictures on them despite the now primitive camera. Their devices are a big conversation starter.

“At parties people will say, ‘oh my goodness, is that a flip phone?,’” Palazzolo said. “We’ll get to talk to some new people, meet some people, and everybody loves it.”

Reagan Boeder, 18, said she’s trying to get her sorority sisters in on the trend.

“I think people are going to go out more and more with flip phones just because it’s so fun and nostalgic and honestly a vibe,” Boeder said.

Before switching phones, Palazzolo found her nights out in her college town would often end in tears stemming from an unwelcome post on social media or a text from an ex, “the root cause was from our phones.”

As vintage technology began making a comeback, they came up with an unconventional solution.

In December, she and three friends went to their local Walmart. The process was unfamiliar for the 18-year-olds, from what model they should buy to finding the right phone plan. After four hours, Palazzolo bought the AT&T Flex for $49.99; her friends got cheaper models for $19.99 through Tracphone.

Palazzolo’s TikTok encouraging others to purchase flip phones has more than 14 million views and over 3 million likes, with hashtags that include #BRINGBACKFLIPPHONES and #y2kaesthetic.

“It eliminates all the bad things about college and brings all of the good things about a phone,” Palazzolo said. “Which is connecting with people and taking photos and videos. The photos and videos on this are fire.”

HMD Global is the exclusive licensee of Nokia, said Gen Z is an unusual demographic for the company. Both companies are based in Finland.

“It’s a generation that didn’t have a Nokia as their first phone and likely discovered our brand through social networks,” said Jackie Kates, HMD Global’s head of marketing.

Gen Z is used to the many features that come with smart phones, from their numerous apps like Instagram, Find My Friends or GPS. But there are safety concerns, too, that come with relying on these simple devices. Without the “find my” tracking feature, Palozzolo said she and her friends stick close together and use a buddy system to keep track of who is where.

Palozzolo wanted to use a flip phone during one high school summer because she thought it would be “cool.” “My parents said absolutely not, we need to be able to track you,” she said.

Palazzolo is no stranger to “vintage” technology – she’s been bringing a digital camera to parties since her sophomore year of high school.

And though Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro has a 48 megapixel camera, it misses the delayed gratification of waiting to have pictures developed or downloaded on to a computer. Popular apps like “Hisptamatic” and “Dazz Cam” recreate digital and film camera photos and have thousands of downloads.

The disposable camera market is predicted to grow $1.23 billion by 2030. Celebrities like TikTokker Charlie D’Amelio and model Emily Ratajkowski have hopped on the 2000-era digital camera trend.

“I love the photos on the flip phones because they are grainy and blurry,” Palazzolo said. “And I think that captures the vibe of going out in college perfectly.”

Maybe one reason Gen Z yearns for the 1990s and 2000s era is the privacy and the absence of carefully curated images. It’s social media at its most casual – photo dumps with candid pictures and BeReal, a popular app that asks its users once a day to take real time selfie and post it within two minutes.

“I don’t ever want to be that person that’s just on their phone the whole time,” Boeder said. “Getting a flip phone kind of made that more possible.”

Back then, “people were more involved in each other than our phones and social media,” Boeder said. “It seemed like people just were talking to each other more and everything was more genuine and spontaneous.”

HMD Global said many people like the idea being less available.

“We attribute this shift to many smartphone users beginning to recognize they are spending too much time glued to their devices and having a strong desire to disconnect and ‘be fully present’ to improve their quality of social connections,” Kates said.

And yes, new Nokia flip phones are still available – the Nokia 2760 Flip is sold at Walmart from prepaid brands such as Verizon for $19.99. The 2780 can be found at Amazon and Best Buy for $89.99.

In 2022, the International Data Corporation said that the market for foldable phones was expected to reach $29 billion in 2025 – a compound annual growth of 70{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550}. Samsung has shipped over 10 million units since its first generation model came out, which accounted for more than 88{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} of the global foldable smartphone market as of 2022.

These aren’t your $30 flip phones available at Walmart. An unlocked Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 starts at $1,799.99, and the Galaxy Z Flip4 at $999.99.

“Samsung chose to bet on its foldable smartphones; a decision which has taken it is far ahead of its rivals in the number and sales of foldable smartphones” said Zaker Li, principal analyst on Omdia mobile devices’ team.

Omdia attributed the high price of Samsung foldable phones to lackluster sales for its earlier models, but sales “rapidly increased” to 9 million units in 2021, up 309{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} year-over-year.

Apple has no need to worry, however – Omdia expects that by 2026, foldable phones will account for 3.6{ac23b82de22bd478cde2a3afa9e55fd5f696f5668b46466ac4c8be2ee1b69550} of the total smartphone market. By comparison, Apple’s market share is more than half of the entire smartphone market.