Why get an iphone/smart phone?

[Matt the Smith Machine]

What are the reasons for getting an iphone/smart phone?

Here's a sumamry of my thoughts on iphones/smart phones;
- They are expensive MP3 Players / Phones
- You can go on the internet but 90% of the time it is used for tweeting or facebook (lame)
- You can download Apps that are interesting for about 1 day
- Some have a GPS, that's good if you travel a lot to unfamiliar palces

That's about it, my mates have iphones/smart phones and they don't seem to have any real appeal over my Sony Ericsson W810i.

Summary of thoughts

At the end of the day you will only use your iphone/smart phone to make calls, text, go on facebook and download apps that become boring rather sudden.
Seems a lot of money to spend to do such basic things.

Please enlighten me on why iphones/smart phones are worth the money.

[Jesus Hernandez]

You have google and wikipedia in your pocket. That is not necessary, but helpful sometimes.

The main reason people buy smart phones is not use but status. Social status. Without smart phone you are hardly a human, more of a cave man.

[Veronica]

Some people (in this case a LOT) enjoy the things as described in your question. I mostly enjoy the fact that my HTC Desire S has a big screen and it looks modern. I have wifi on my phone, and that keeps me away from the high costs every month. I can use handy apps like my favourite micoach from adidas, that helps me on my weightloss journey, or searching for new clothes on my H&M app. Is there a micoach app on the sony ericsson? Exactly. You'll see that smart phones are starting to cost a lot less than three years ago, just because there are a lot of versions of them. But there's no need to buy the latest big smartphone, if you already have a phone that works perfectly.

[Andi]

Look at it the other way around.

A basic 'smart phone' especially on contract, (5 pounds/month - 100 mins/UNL texts)
is not more expensive than a basic/traditional calls-texts only phone.

With a smart phone you get the oppourtunity to
- have a built in 5-8MPixel camera (no need for an exta 100 pounds for that)
- browse the web/google the odd query.
- see what apps can do
eg Radio / TV catchup over the internet - TuneIn radio is a great radio anywhere app
weather apps., email/gmail on the phone
google maps (if you are out and about in a new place) and street view etc.

agreed, there is no need to be twitter, facebook, IM etc
(though skype can be useful for calls, IM and video calling to PC's and other mobiles)

or even use the MP3 player - not every one sits listening to Mp3s
but podcasts downloaded on RSS can be nice


And all that for not more than a SIM only / text and talk phone - so Why Not ?

eg 0 - 10 pound/month
http://store.three.co.uk/Mobile_Phones/P...e=0to14.99

HTC explorer - £11 pounds/month truely unlimited data, 100 mins, 5000 texts
http://store.three.co.uk/view/product/ql...evice/2408

SIM only - 9.90/monh = 500 MB/ 200 mins/ 5000 txts - 1 month
store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=2911

SIM only - £15.90 600 minutes/UNL data. 5000 txtx - 12 months
http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=2917

So cheaper to get with a phone (even if you sell it later !)

As you say, no need to get a smart phone,
but why not ?

Same for t-mobile - slide to less than 10 /month (several 7/month plans)
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/pay-month...le-phones/

[Rich]

Well, I agree.... I can wait to get on the Internet when I get home... I use my phone for calls and texts. The price for internet/data is outrageous... and it is kind of a status thing... with taxes, you are talking around $80 to $100 a month... I'm happy with calls/text. May be behind the times, but $50 a month is enough..!

[Hello]

I don't have a smartphone either, mine is a Motorola W 408 and it has everything I need, it even has internet but I do not use it since I abandoned Facebook, and I hardly used Twitter. I think some people need the Smartphone since they want everything, for example, they want a computer/tablet, Mp3 player, land line phone, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), Internet, book reader, gamer, just about every electronic built into one. The apps could be helpful if it is something important such as a dictionary or books.Gps could be useful, but a cell phone is probably not the best GPS ever. I think it is worth the money, as long as you do not have everything that I listed above. So a smartphone could actually be very important for some people who do not have all those things listed above. I do not need all those things since I have every single thing on there, but they are all separate.

[Brandon]

you can do everything faster. get anwers to anything through internet. Texting is faster and better. email IM. APPS. And let me say i play apps ALL THE TIME. not for one day. There are hundreds of thousands of apps. But ill recommend the Samsung Galaxy S III. its the fastest and best smartphone out right now. It has so many amazing features