As you may have read, yesterday, my family faced an Internet white-out last week.
Thankfully, everyone made it out alive as we lived disconnected from the web for about a week.
Once we figured out that we would be without the web and telephone for a full week, we finally decided we should spring for a smartphone.
This Tech Blogger Has No Smartphone?
Yes, that’s right, sound the alarm, my wife and I don’t have a smartphone. It’s been a conscience decsion. There have been several contributing factors, for those that are curious, here’s why:
- We don’t want to be those people who always have their face in a device.
- We spend enough time working online, and to make matters worse, we work from home. So breaking away from work—and desk—should also require unplugging from the Internet.
- Money. And even more important than the cost, committing to a contract. Living overseas isn’t cheap, so cutting costs when we can is important.
We do, however, use an iPod. The latest iPod, like many smartphones, have great cameras; plus, we can access the web if there’s a real emergency using a friends wifi connection. Having an iPod has been the perfect solution to reap many benefits that a smartphone provides, without having to deal with all the negatives.
Because Things Change
Being without the net and losing our phone connection, we decided to take another pass at getting our first smartphone. After pricing data plans and going over our budget, we found that getting one smartphone plan would be a net neutral move.
It was a no brainer.
So, we headed out to get our first iPhone! We were really excited, and it had been something we had thought about, prayed about, and considered for serveral years. We were not going into this lightly.
But then we didn’t have an Italian credit card…
No iPhone for You!?!
It turned out that our American credit card wasn’t going to land us an iPhone with our data plan, and that we would need to purchase a smartphone outright.
We had our hearts set on an iPhone, and while we could have just as easily bought one outright, we couldn’t bring ourselves to drop that many coins on one. For the same price as an iPhone 4s—not even an iPhone 5 or 6—we could land a better Android device (Samsung) for the half the cost!
No wonder Android rules the world marketplace.
If I were only going to spend an extra five bucks a month to land an iPhone, I could probably justify it. But an extra couple hundred bucks upfront was not a compromise I was willing to make.
In fact, upon further review, I found that iPhones in general are far more of a status symbol than I had first realized (in Europe anyway). I’ve gone from Windows to Mac, and aside from being a lame gaming platform (just buy a Playstation!), I would not want to go back.
I can not say the same thing when it comes to smartphones.
Steven Gliebe says
Like you guys, we resisted smartphones for a while and had just an iPod. An iPhone didn’t look like it’d be worth the extra coin due to our light use and aversion to contracts. But, thanks to Glyde and Ting we ended up with two “like new” last year models (current year models rarely have anything revolutionary) running iOS 8. No contract and probably saved a small fortune.
It was a bit of a hassle getting a used phone, though. We tried Gazelle before Glyde and they sent us two duds in a row. Fortunately they have a good return policy. Even so, I suspect getting a “free” new phone with a long contract has at least as much opportunity for headaches (and more expensive at that).
Eric Dye says
That’s awesome, Steven!
We thought about the used route, here, but iPhone’s are still too hot around here. I am glad to know that we’re not the only one being cautious and careful. 😀
Makenzie says
I’ve always had an Android phone, but was ready to be wowed with the iPhone6 and make the change. I wasn’t, and didn’t make the change, even though I am a die-hard Mac computer user. Yes, the iPhones are beautiful and fit in a girl’s hand way better than Android phones do, but when push comes to shove, Android phones have always won me whenever I’m ready to buy a new phone.
Now, the argument of using all Apple products because they work together perfectly, while true, isn’t an end all argument. Android devices work perfectly well with Macs and I’ve never had any problems. And, as a HUGE Google fan, I love that everything is linked through my gmail account.
Congratulations on choosing the better phone. 🙂
Eric Dye says
Thank you!
It’s true. With so much tied into Google… 🙂
Eric J says
A bit of a typo there ;).
Eric Dye says
I’ve had WAY too many of these lately… :-/
Gangai Victor says
One more:
That aside, imho, iOS is great for tablets, but on phones, Android is a far better choice and more value for money.
You got this right bro!
Gangai Victor says
Oops, was trying to point out the typos in “It’s been a conscience decsion. ” Didn’t use the right HTML tag I guess!
Eric Dye says
Phew! Good to know. 😉
Sean says
I think price and cost are the main factors. Like you said, if it were a couple bucks a month more, sure go iphone, but yeah couple hundred dollars upfront? Not sure about that. I know the apps I use most are both platforms (Dropbox, Stitcher, Kindle, Gmail, Feedly & social networks), about 80% of my smartphone use would go unchanged if I switched.
I do think the iPhone is the superior device. Tho it would be hard to fork over full price ($750) for one. I would be more inclined to get and iPad.
However, here in the states it seems a good android (Samsung) costs the same as an iPhone. Those who refuse to get iPhones seem to do so for emotional reasons.
Eric Dye says
Not the case with what I found. A Samsung cost me HALF of what an equal or lesser iPhone would be…and it seems like emotional reasons tend to run both ways.
Like I said before, if I could have snagged one for a few more bucks a month—like some can—I probably would have. But forking over that much cash? Nope. Not gonna happen. 🙂
Baz says
I had a Nokia N900 running Linux, then went android. It did not end well. Something to do with reflashing a kernel for the fourth time in a week and I snapped. It’s buried somewhere in the garden. I went and got an iPhone. I no longer believe in other phones. I can design, sketch, photo edit, wrote, and study on one device. It’s amazing. Honestly, I couldn’t stand apple but now, man, I couldn’t pick up a WinMo or Android.
Eric Dye says
THAT was an amazing comment. 😀