It is because they upgraded from a Nokia 3310 and they got a smartphone pushed on them, even though they don't want/need it and don't need a data plan for phone calls and SMS.

My wife got given an android smartphone as an upgrade that she didn't really need and she uses it as a camera and Facebook tool. It's a Sony Xperia and I have to say, I think it's great. Especially how cheap it was.

I have the Xperia Pro with slide-out keyboard, bought it new off eBay. It's a great phone, I'd recommend it to anyone. And I know a complete novice who got one of the more recent ones and loves it.

Yes but that still does not explain everyone. When I had my old P910i, the data contracts were expensive so I never used it for internet access. It was excellent for keeping all my data on, and I could sync with my macs. I cannot understand why people accept having a phone foisted on them. Wouldn't they be better to have a phone that they want and a cheaper contract?

I think the people are taking the cheaper contracts, but the carriers here are pushing either Senior Citizen phones (huge buttons and a large single line LCD display or you get a Galaxy SII for 1€, whether you take data or not.

Senior Citizen phones are a scam of their own. Very basic phones and probably overpriced as well, which only needs a very simple tariff. If they are offering Smartphones for €1 then they must be pricing the minutes quite highly to cover the running costs and costs of the phone. Mobile telcos have high fixed costs but very low marginal costs so could offer much better deals to get people to sign up.

Depends on the carrier.

We are looking at Blau.de and 1&1, both are around 19€ to 25€ for all net flat, SMS flat and data flat.

SMS is a very high margin business. Though it does not look too bad.


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Most carriers offer an SMS flatrate for around 5€.

SMS deals will still make the carriers a lot of money. Since even if they literally sent thousands of messages they might still not send enough messages to exceed the cost of the deal.

My parents don't really need smart phones. They need to call and have the occasional texts. They were offered free smartphones or would have to pay for "standard" phones with no touch screen. It's taken them time to adjust - I'm pleased that they're adapting and improving but it's too much for them in all honesty. My mother hates it because she hardly gets a signal in the house whereas with the old phone, it was full signal anywhere in the house.

Edit: I myself love my smartphone. Spent £100s on apps, esp medical ones to help me when I'm on home visits. I always have to check emails too. The majority of my apps are games though and I've been suckered into buying the big fish inc knes where it's a "find the hidden objects" coupled with an adventure where you use objects to complete tasks.

There are clearly two markets now but telcos are not really interested in non smart phone customers.

From what I can see there are now markets for the elderly who only really need cheap basic phones though maybe with bigger buttons for simple calls and texts, these are not really there in the market and a contract that does not penalise them for the lack of calls that they may make. It should make that minimum one required "call" automatically to keep the number active and automatically top itself with a minimal balance up when necessary. That would suit most elderly. As it stands if they forget to make that call they end up with a dead phone, which is not good if they want it for emergency. In fact this could apply to any who do not really need a mobile but having one for emergency would be handy.

I love my iPhone and have tons of apps. I'm on all you can eat data so don't worry if I'm using the internet. I could probably cut down on apps on the phone but I'm OK for space to so need to. I'm using the iPhone less at home now I have the iPad.

Most frequent apps:

eBooks
Mail
Train Tickets - gives you live station boards and you can check the trains progress along the line
Safari
Facebook
Twitter
Mahjong
Scrabble
Project 365
PowerCam
Shopping apps
Radio apps - especially in the summer when in the garden
Maps
Lync 2010
Various cooking apps

My fiancé wants to switch to my old Sensation and her daughter will get my old iPhone 3GS. Neither have Apple or Google accounts.

My fiancé has had the iPhone for about 4 months now and not used any additional apps, just phone, SMS and email.

The apps I use:

Audible
Listen
Chrome
XE
OneNote
Skydrive
Kindle
Sparkasse