Do we really need "better" smartphones.

Cash-Strapped.T32

thegoodman wrote: »

Rather than buying a Galaxy Note might as well carry a laptop with a mobile sim so you can make calls and also have two use in one, main computer at home and a mobile phone when outside.

Excellent point - Applies to all smartphones though.
Let's not kid ourselves ~ We use smartphones because they're very handy & convenient, *not* because we need them.

I would suggest that only a handful of people can say why they have a smartphone and why they need one.

This is probably true, though as a diehard geek I don't like to admit it.

If we really needed to use facebook or email 24/7, we'd have been carrying netbooks & laptops round with us for years before smartphones became so common or so capable.

Anyone who really needs a sat-nav (for work, visiting sites etc..) has been able to buy them cheap as chips for years now and probably already has had one for years. (£50 Tom-Toms etc..)
The smartphone just lets you leave the standalone unit in the car permanently, or at home so we don't have to remember to take it.

MP3 players that can handle FM radio and store more data than my first 5 PCs put together, and that can play videos have been around for yonks, and are very cheap; When I was at college spending half my life on busses I used £10-£15 mp3 players all the time & never thought "my god I wish I had a phone that could play rage against the machine right now - that would just complete me"


In fact almost anything that a smartphone can do has been around for ages, because it's really only the package that has gotten smaller - the logic of programming hasn't really changed, and programmers haven't on the whole become a more intelligent breed than they were 10yrs ago.

We're not talking about anything really innovative, not like when we saw huge mainframes move to personal computers, or when programming was opened up to the masses with the BBC micros & it's ilk (whatever happened to that?) it's pretty much just the progression of bulky desktops to laptops, then to netbooks, then to smartphones/tablets - Classic miniaturisation of electronics, and cheaper manufacturing processes.


The few things that *are* unique to modern smartphones (I can only think of barcode scanning at the moment because it would be awkward to hold up your lappy's web-cam up to a packet of dog-biscuits on a shop shelf) aren't exactly important - Certainly not important enough to spend >£200 on.



Please don't get me wrong anyone, this isn't an anti-smartphone rant - I do use mine regularly, for GPS tracking, or remote-accessing my home/work pc while out & about, but I also recognise that I only have it to free myself up from needing to carry a laptop, or a second sat-nav, or a digicam, or one of my many older MP3 players etc..

It certainly isn't because it was impossible to surf the internet or to update your status to "having a particularly difficult poo today" before now, I just never bothered doing those things because I couldn't be bothered to carry those devices with me in the past.

IMO, *that's* the value in them; Convenience. They're very handy! :T

thegoodman

Nearly all things in life are not "need". One can leave without tv, radio, computer, and all other stuff,you are not going to die without them. Only item come under "need" are food, water, air, stuff that keep you alive.
All other items are "want", not just mobile phones. The capitalism is based on "want" and change it to "need" via adverts.

Just because fm radio, camera etc has been around for many years is a point less argument. The fire has been around for 1000's of years but we can still improve the use. The cooker is better than wood fire. Both will do the job.
I bet some people than would have gone about how I don't need a cooker because the wood fire does the job, what's the point of spending money etc. Nothing unique about cookers both will generate heat.

Cash-Strapped.T32

I do appreciate your point, but I think it's far from a pointless argument; It's merely recognising that if we consider the things we use our smartphone for as essential (and that's always a personal judgement), then we are kidding ourselves - Because we've had the same capabilities for years before smartphones came along.

It is recognition that smartphones merely give us those previously disparate capabilities in a single small package, albeit while paying a price premium in most cases.
That's not pointless, it's just being honest with ourselves.

As I said above, I'm a heavy user of mine, as much as anyone on this forum, but like everyone else I benefit from the convenience modern smartphones have allowed me; I don't do these things now because they were impossible to do before, I do them because now it's convenient.