march 25, 2006
I can never make up my mind. If I have two things, I'll use one and switch to the other, only to switch back a bit later. I have been switching back and forth between my Nokia 6682 and my Motorola RAZR the last few days. Right now the SIM is in my RAZR again.
Russ posted about the shine wearing off smartphones after a few days, his inspiration was a Signal vs. Noise post.
Jason from Signal vs. Noise hit the whole smartphone thing on the head: Most of us convince ourselves that we need the features of a smartphone, but really, we don't. With that I looked at what I do with my phone and not what I think I might do with my phone.
I carry my phone with me everywhere. Usually, I make one or two calls a day and text message with my wife. I also use it to keep track of my appointments and meetings, so a basic calendar on a phone is what I use -- especially for the alarms. That is about all I do. Stuff that I do with my phone occassional is taking pictures, checking email, and maybe checking something on the web. Oh, and maybe play a quick casual game (DOOM RPG, Tetris).
So, do I really need a 220Mhz processor hanging off my belt for that stuff? No. Like Jason, I find that I have all the fun when I get a smartphone: Loading software, trying out features, and exploring the phone. After the shine wears off, I get bored with the phone because it becomes just a regular phone. I lug around the big smartphone because I might use the 1.3Mpixel camera. Or I might use the full version of Opera. Or I might use the full calendaring application with a to-do list. Or I might use the full addressbook. But, I find: I really don't use that stuff that much.
I am going to try to use my RAZR for at least two weeks without switch back to the 6682. I definitely won't sell off the 6682 because I really like it. But, I want to see if I can't just get by with a regular mobile phone. Jason on Signal vs. Noise switched from a Nokia N70 "down" to a Motorola PEBL. I am going from 6682 to a Motorola RAZR.
This is a consistent problem with me. I switched between a Treo 600 and the RAZR. The shine wore off the Treo 600 pretty quick. And now between the 6682 and RAZR. And before that the Sidekick II and Sony Ericsson t68i.
Russ writes, "We need to create apps and services that we’ll want to use once the shine wears off. We need to find those compelling apps that make you pull it out of your pocket and use it every day." I agree, but I also think that people need to reassess what kind of phone they really need. At work, I see a lot of people carrying around Treos. Then there are people who carry around Windows Mobile devices. I wonder: Just how many of them really need a smartphone? How many of them use any of the features on a daily basis? And how many of them could actually survive with a smaller, regular phone?
What about you? Do you smartphone? Why?
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