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Do You Really Need a Smart Phone?
Roblimo writes "My phone is as stupid as a phone can be, but you can drop it or get it wet and it will still work. My cellular cost per month is about $4, on average. I've had a cellular phone longer than most people, and I assure you that a smart phone would not improve my life one bit. You, too, might find that you are just as happy with a stupid phone as with a smart one. If nothing else, you'll save money by dumbing down your phone." I stuck with a dumb phone for a long time, but I admit to loving the versatility of my Android phone, for all its imperfections.
Man who does not need bells and whistles says bells and whistles not needed. Story at 11.
This is the most pointless post ever to appear on the /. front page.
I avoided getting a smart phone for a long time, even though I'm surrounded by people with smart phones, because I knew that as soon as I had one it would become indispensable, just like my Visor did, and my Palm, and my iPod, and ... so on.
Now, I have an iPhone, and it's indispensable. Sure, I could manage without it, but I use it all day, every day, and I feel I would be lost without it. And while I know that's an illusion, I also know how my brain works. ... which is why I don't have an iPad yet ...
Apache guy, Open Source enthusiast, runner
This may be a sample size of only one, but I can definitely state that not only do I not need or have a smart phone, I also do not need or have a dumb cell phone.
My landline gets little enough use as it is, and when I need to call outside of my local area, I have more minutes on this prepaid phonecard I keep around than I will ever use.
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For others, no.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
My N900 portable computer have phone functionality.
I like the idea of a smart phone, but I have a greater like for 5 to 10 dollars a month for my mobile expenses. At some point I'll get a smart-ish phone, but only when I get the service I want at a nominal fee without some damn 2 year contract.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I agree. I have a dumb 2G phone, and a subnotebook if I want to look at the Web or do email. I'm not interested in trying to do input on a dinky screen. If I want to watch a movie, I have a 42" screen at home for that.
Amusingly, the phone I have has a web browser, but if I try to use it for anything, either Sprint's 2G network times out or the browser crashes.
As with most things, you only need a smartphone once you have it.
I'm not actually sure if I actually need a phone at all. I spend several orders of magnitude more time on my phone doing other stuff (email, listening to podcasts, general web browsing, GPS navigation, etc) then I do actually using it as a phone.
As such, I'd lose the "phone" long before I lost the "smart".
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I don't feel any need to own a cell phone, smart or dumb. I have a landline at home. I have a landline at work. I don't need to talk to people on the phone when I'm in my car (and I don't want to endanger myself or others by doing it when I'm driving). I don't need to talk to people on the phone when I'm walking down the street, or shopping, or hiking or riding my bike.
Find free books.
I'm one for distinguishing between 'needs' and 'wants'. The thing to realize is that if you can afford it, fulfilling your 'wants' is a valid exercise, it's what drives like 90% of our economy today.
I had a simple cell phone for years - now I more want a Pad type device that can also act as a phone via bluetooth. Is it a need? Heck, I technically don't need a cell phone in the first place, though a basic plan today is cheaper than the landlines, especially when you figure all my family are long distance at the moment.
I don't read AC A human right
"I assure you a smart phone would not improve my life one bit".
Sorry, but that statement is frankly idiotic. You have NEVER needed a map? Yeah right.
There are a thousand other little ways in which a smartphone improves your life, that's just the most obvious...
Also, most smart phones can be dropped or even accidentally put in water with the same survival rate as your dumb phone.
I can totally understand someone simply not wanting much of a monthly bill, but lets not get absurd about there being no tradeoff for going dumb.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Seriously. Is this what we're reduced to now? Nobody gives a shit if you don't want a phone with more features. Now fuck off.
A car. I could quit my job, or bike to work and arrive a sweaty mess, or move to a city, or take mass transit for an hour vs 25 minutes of commute. A radio. Music is a luxury nothing more. A home phone. People can write letters like we used to did in my days as a kid. A TV. News is only entertainment and the entertainment isn't even entertaining. Electric lights. Candles work, and who needs to be up after dark falls? Plumbing. There's an outhouse down the block. None of these are necessities, unless you want to have a career. Personally my Job mandates I have a smartphone. (IT). So I need one, as without one, I wouldn't be able to afford food, shelter and clothing right now. Past that there is no place for a Smart Phone on Maslow's hierarchy of needs unless it helps to achieve one or more of them. A cell phone is not very useful when what you need is clean drinking water, but then again not much is.
So if you want to argue that "people don't need smartphones" - I find it kind of nonsensical. If I had to give-up one major feature of my "smartphone", it would probably be the "telephone" piece. If I were to rate in order of importance what I use my iPhone for, I'd have to say:
- Calendar (Shared and synced)
- Notes (Everything from gift ideas, to what kind of light bulbs I have in my house. Some of my notes I've been maintaining and using for YEARS).
- Email
- SMS
- GPS
- Camera
- Games & Entertainment (Yeah - hate to say it - but I kill a LOT of spare time with my iPhone!)
- Facebook
- Mobile Web (Hate to admit it, but the "experience" is still lousy on a small screen)
- Misc. productivity apps
Oh yea...and..
- Telephone
I wouldn't call myself a luddite but converting to smartphones weren't all the sucess and hype that some made it out to be. It's may do a lot of things with technically good performance but it's not the smooth versatile multitasking of a computer, everything is single-tracked. It doesn't produce beatuiful pictures, just technically good. Changing music is somewhat sluggish. Productive work is not possible. Games are simple at best and calling and text is well, calling and text.
The overall experience was pretty much meh.
I've got a blackberry :-(
I can't tell you the number of times my iPhone has allowed me to take the kids to the playground while tending to work stuff. The kids can play, and I can spend 90% of the time playing with them, and 10% answering emails.
The alternative would have been the kids stay home and don't get a workout.
Do I *need* a smartphone? No. But has it saved time enough for everyone in my family to make it worthwhile, and improved family life? Yes. absolutely.
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Cutting cable was one of the best things I ever did! So much more time to code, game, hang out with friends, watch movies, etc.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
And now if you just stopped gaming and watching movies, you'd have so much more time to spend coding and hanging out with friends etc!
I got my wife a used iPhone 4. Then picked up a sim from AT&T at their retail store. Put it on a pay as you go plan. Cheap smart phone plan, as long as you don't talk all that much. If you talk more, you could always install the skype app.