Sorry in advance, but this topic touched a nerve.
[rant mode ON]
My cell is an ancient Nokia- probably 8 years old now.
Funny thing is, more "advanced" phones seem to have gotten a little smaller, have a lot of features I don't want (I don't need a camera, dammit- I HAVE A REAL CAMERA), and are so thin that everybody I know seems to break their phone at least once a year.
Whereas my boring, non-folding, 5 by 3/4 inch phone, which has an alarm clock, calendar, clock, and texting features (which I use whenever I call 411, but never really use otherwise) ... oh, and did I mention, that since I'm on a family plan with my entire extended family, I get unlimited just-about-everything (I'm sure the minutes are finite, but meh, it's well over the amount I use it on a monthly basis) for about $150 a YEAR?
Apple could sell me a phone. Why? Because I'd love to buy a phone that was Apple quality (sneer not, people- I've owned many Macs, and they're excellent hardware and well-designed for the most part) but was also Apple
simple.
The iPhone, however, is completely irrelevant to me. I'd have to give up my awesome family plan, learn a stupid touch-screen interface, re-program all of my numbers, etc., etc., and then I'd break it after a day or two. When Apple learns that there's a real market out there for people who'd like a non-sucky, nice-looking, super-tough phone with few "advanced" features, for people like me, who just want to TALK ON THE PHONE (ok, I use the calendar and alarm clock, too, but meh, those weren't "advanced" features... back in 1999) that will work with any cellphone carrier ... well, then I'm sold.
Sorry, I guess I just sounded old and out've touch there, for a minute
The thing is, though... I've had this phone forever, and I've never even USED most of the features. Most of you, I would be willing to bet real money, have used the gimmicky features of your phones, like the cameras, maybe three times (once to see if it worked, twice because you remembered that you had that feature and whipped it out in time) and I'll bet most of you have paid more in phone-repair bills, over a two-year timeframe, than I have paid in eight.
Apparently, with cell phones, once we got past the uber-stupid giant-walkie-talkie phase and could make them last a reasonable amount of time and get OK reception, the main things that have happened is that cell phone designers have spent more and more time building products that look cooler, but actually give you less true functionality and worth, when you subtract the value-added costs of all of the gimmicky features.
I just don't understand, frankly, why there aren't loads of people like me out there- people, who when their old good phones finally die, will be demanding indestructible, simple and easily-used phones that will last for a decade, instead of pretty, flimsy pieces of crap filled with buggy software and features you'll never really use.
I'm sure most of you have slightly smaller phones. I'm sure that they have much prettier colors than my 256-color, 256/256 LCD display. But, when it comes to just talking on the phone... I really doubt that there's much difference between my phone and yours, except that mine costs about an eighth of the average cell-phone user's costs per year, and I've dropped it about a billion times, onto everything from tables to concrete, and it still works
[/rant mode]
I just upgraded my Verizon contract and got