Jan "Jenkings" Škoda - blog

My friend Tom sent me a very interesting phone. Alcatel 3040D. At first glance, it looks just like any other Android phone. Even the touch keys under the display look familiar.



However, it started acting strangely after I turned it on. It showed the time and basic settings screen, and it looked... strange.

To be honest, I thought it was some kind of high school project. But some manufacturers often create their own onboarding screens, and I thought that perhaps they didn't have enough time to create a more polished one, so they released this work-in-progress.





And after setting the basics, it started a homescreen, which also looks like some old Android with "cool" launchers, so, i was still thinking about "Just another Android"...

However then i started to discover the system, and found out, that all menus and inputs are the same looking as the onboarding procedure. So, i discovered, that this is definitely not and android.



There used to be an app marketplace, as well as an icon for 'Games'. However, after clicking on 'Games', it tries to download something that hasn't existed for ages. The same problem occurs with the Marketplace. It has no connection to the servers.

Based on the information that nobody really knows what 'system' is running inside, and that it is possibly not an operating system but just some simple firmware to imitate Android, I think the chances of finding any apps or sideloading are almost zero.



The whole phone looks more like a piece of development hardware than a real production phone. It comes with a variety of apps, such as social media, a calculator, a store and a recorder, as well as various "simulators", such as a fake caller.

Overall, I really like the concept of someone trying to create their own system. Based on the limited information available about two or three phones released with this system, it was a really ambitious project from the outset. Alcatel also released some phones with hardware keyboards, aiming to compete with Blackberry.

So, based on that infantile approach, it doesn't stand much chance of success. But I appreciate the effort, and I like it anyway.