I’d get a smartphone, but companies like Tracfone, etc. do not have anything that is truly considered a smartphone.
I don’t have awesome credit and I don’t want to spend $45 a month for Straight Talk or MetroPCS plus pay way over $100 just for a phone (while a lot of post-paid phones can be gotten for less or free on contract).
I just know one day (true) smart phones will be affordable and off-contract for under $100 and when that happens, I’ll join the smart phone community 
Boost Mobile might be a possibility. I know someone that has them and it seems to be unlimited talk/text/web for $50 per month. I think they run on the Sprint network.
You’re so right. But don’t worry, you only need access to the Urban Dictionary to live in the “modern” word. You definitely don’t need a smart phone.
If there’s one thing more annoying than having someone constantly fiddle with their phone, it’s hearing them go on about how they don’t have a cellphone and it makes them a better and holier person.
BTW, why do the US networks still charge people to receive text messages? That’s just dumb. It’s like charging people to receive mail.
Because the price of goods isn’t set based upon how much things cost, the price of goods is set based upon how much their customers are willing to pay for it. And people are still willing to pay to send and receive texts.
They do run on Sprint. That was one of the reasons I switched. I have the shrinkage plan, so my bill goes down to $35 this month.
Mmmmmm - I’m wondering how much landlines play into this. I only talk on the phone with my mom. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have any phone lines, I’d probably just come into work early/stay late and use my office phone if I ever needed it.
I think a lot of people who think smartphones are useless do most of their communication via landline. I said a lot, not all - there are users of old cellphones who don’t want the new features. But for someone who doesn’t use the phone and instead communicates via text message, email and Facebook, smartphones are indispensable.
Not having a smartphone makes no sense for someone like me. I buy movie tickets on my phone. I look up restaurants with apps. I email a business if I have a request. I Facebook message my friends to plan gatherings. I text my coworkers to see if they want me to pick up coffee. I Google Map a new store I want to shop at. I submit a support ticket if my printer is wonky.
My smartphone is a music player, game machine, bookstore, magazine, email reader, notepad, calculator, library, fact checker, calendar, camera, scrapbook, atlas, chessboard, suduko book, child-minder, and phone.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.
The thing for me is apps. It can turn your phone into something incredibly useful. I don’t know what you love to do, but I guarantee there’s a (cheap) app that will deepen your love of your hobby.
Of course, it’s not a requirement to have one, but I have found my smartphone incredibly useful and I’d really miss it if I had to get rid of it.
Not really. I don’t do most of my communication by phone, much less by landline. But my dumbphone has text messaging, I spend my time at work with a thin client on my desk, I have computers at home and I drive to and from work. Although I have a Blackberry, I can only use it for work purposes. People keep telling me I need a smartphone for personal use, but for what? The five hours a year or so that I spend in doctor’s waiting rooms? My Kindle works for that and it doesn’t cost me $30/month for a data package.
Still charge? They actually charge more than they used to. When I first was able to send/receive texts, it cost .02 to receive a text and .05 to send one, and there were no packages. As texting became more popular, the price per text went up- pay as you go texting is now .20 per text , and a package of 1000 texts is $10. Which is great if you send/receive 1000 texts per month but not so great if you send/receive 50 - with the .02/.05 pricing, that was a maximum of $2.50.
I’d say you have a decent theory, kushiel, for at least a subset of the anti-smartphone group. I’m typing this on my iPhone 4, actually, and a couple of years ago I would’ve been typing this on my iPhone 2G (which I had for the standard 2 years; upgraded from a razr).
My husband and I don’t have a landline and never have (married a couple of years ago) and neither of us had a landline when we had our own places. I don’t see the point in paying for an extra phone I’ll never use. I friggin’ love my damn phone (though I could go on at length about what I think apple cocked up ;)) because of how entertaining and useful it is, especially when you include the apps available. I’m also hanging on to my grandfathered unlimited data plan, so it could even work as my home Internet in a pinch.
It’s not that they charge for texts, it’s that they charge to receive them that seems so ass-backwards. Paying to send a text, fine - it’s your decision to send it. But paying to receive them, when you have no control over who sends you texts or how often, seems most unfair. I get occasional advertising texts from my phone network - annoying, yes, but I could stop them if I was that bothered, and at least they are free. Do you really get charged to receive advertising messages?
In the UK you have to pay to send texts, on PAYG I think it’s usually about 10-12p. Most contract plans have lots of texts included - I think mine is essentially unlimited, although I did have to get a plan with far more minutes than I actually need in order to get a “free” iPhone 4.
I’m willing to pay to send - but I am NOT willing to pay to receive.
However, I don’t think there are any carriers in the US who DON’T charge the recipient. If there were, people would move to those carriers (barring contract lockdowns etc.), and ultimately they’d all have to go that way.
It really chaps my ass that someone can spam me, and I pay for the privilege. Oh - and when I text my husband, who is on my same plan (family share plan), it hits both of our monthly allowances.
We currently have an allowance of 250 texts per month apiece. Now, we’ve never come close to that, and for a long time it was cheaper to pay per text (even at 20 cents per), but it still annoys me to have that 250 eaten into by scammers.
I won’t get one because of Verizon’s refusal to allow dataplan sharing in a multi-phone account, the way they allow a shared pool of minutes for air time.
But I’m not going to switch to a third rate carrier who may allow this.
I disabled the ability of all our phones to receive text messages for the reasons stated; charge me if I make one, okay, charge me to receive them - fuck you.
I wish some Euro carrier would come into our market (or buy up one of our carriers) and start implementing their business model here and screwing over all the carriers. I would switch to them in a heartbeat.
I have a 6-year-old TracFone. Black and white LCD screen. No email. No Internet. I keep it in my car, and *might *use it once or twice a month.
I do not understand what a Smartphone would do for me. Of course, I also still buy music CDs and read books made from wood pulp. So maybe that says something.
Basically, it’s because texting was treated differently when it came on the scene than in the entire rest of the fucking world. Texting picked up steam first among teenagers/early 20somethings, which meant that a majority of American adults looked at it more as a frivolous thing for kids. Since most teens are on their parents’ plans, the companies charged a pretty outrageous amount for texts (outrageous when compared to the amount of data actually used compared to a minute of an actual call) because teens wouldn’t care about the cost, but they’d whine until their parents added texting to their plan. 
Now that people have finally acknowledged the usefulness of texting… well, why would the phone companies change the pricing model when everyone is used to getting overcharged?
It’s incredibly annoying, because I pay more for texting than I do for my actual minutes, and I barely even use my minutes! Most calls I make are either during free night/weekend zones* or are mobile-to-mobile**. The same goes for the rest of the people on my family plan. I have 5 freakin’ lines that share 700 minutes; that sounds like such a small amount for 5 people, but we have over 6,100 rollover minutes. I have to pay $30 for unlimited texting across all phones, but I’m literally not able to reduce the number of minutes on my plan to save me money there. :rolleyes:
** My AT&T now allows you to call any mobile phone and it doesn’t count against your minutes.
I’m not a phone person at all. I don’t like having to drop everything to answer a call, I don’t like being a disembodied voice, I constantly forget to charge the battery. The only reason I have a cell phone at all is because (a) most forms and such require a phone number and (b) it’s cheaper than a landline.
OTOH, I do have an Android tablet, which is like a smartphone without the “phone” aspect.
I do know that over here, no one pays to receive a text, whether it involves a smart or a dumb phone. These things evolve. I recall when cellphones first started to take off over here, and you actually paid to receive a call. That went by the wayside eventually.
WTF after scanning “pages” of data – most people are talking about taking pictures, sending/receiving texts, and, of course, calling.
I’ll never get some smart damned phone, but the dumb phone can do all that I mentioned above. Maybe I’m confused, but in the US, you can have a damned dumb phone that does everything except surf the durf or look at porn or play at stupid “apps” for tuning your guitar or chasing your cheating wife if you have a decent plan without shelling.
ETA those fucking apps are stoopid – yeah, Magellan! You can navigate without…wait…with a compass, but in phone form. Tune your guitar without a … tuner. Observe porn without masturbating – there’s probably a fucking app for that. I do that shit on a computer or an old-ass honky bit of analog gear. Except your mom – she gots to stay masturbated upon.
:rolleyes: Whatever, grampa. You don’t sound like you have the slightest idea what apps are out there and what they can do (and you use a compass for navigation? Well aren’t you all high tech! Why bother with a compass when you can use your eyes to figure out the sun’s position?).
Would I die without my smartphone? Of course not. But it provides a lot of convenience for me. Just mentioning a small handful of my apps, I can:
[ul]
[li]Look up a word/synonym options on a dictionary/thesaurus app[/li][li]Use a unit conversion app to instantly convert one unit of measurement to another (with literally hundreds of units)[/li][li]Scan a barcode and have an app give me information/details about the item, reviews, and at what prices retailers (both online and close by my location) are selling it[/li][li]Look at major roads/freeways in the metro area by selecting traffic cams to view[/li][li]Use a level app (seriously!) if I want to make sure something is hanging/affixed straight [/li][li]Check the weather for the day or check an animated weather map when there’s some sort of storm coming[/li][li]Make the cameraphone’s flash function as a flashlight[/li][li]If I’m in an area I don’t know very well, I can use an app that detects my location via gps to give me the locations of nearby restaurants, gas stations, pharmacies, banks, hospitals, etc. [/li][li]View, upload or download files from my box.com cloud storage[/li][li]Play a Simon Says-style game where each button plays a different fart sound (what?)[/li][/ul]