For those companies like Nokia, LG, Pantech, Samsung, and others that still manufacture featured phones it will be an even tougher slog as featuredphone demand falls.
The average revenue per user for a smartphone user is far higher than a featuredphone one, and this allows carriers to recover money over the course of the contract period.
Google also has a chance to feature maps and location services on other apps, valuable because Google earns ad dollars from the businesses its maps feature, such as whenever a user taps on a featuredphone number.