Not Everyone Has a Smartphone (Whiny Rant)

[Muggle]

It has kinda ruined my day today though. See the gripe thread on the next few minutes

 

[Tom L.]

See, my feeling is, the flip phone will become completely obsolete at some point in time. The flip phone that I currently use was originally bought by my mother, who wanted just a *very* basic cellphone. The guy had to go in the back to look for it. He knew they had something, but it wasn't on display out on the floor. Once flip phones are phased out, what will take their place will probably be one or two basic smartphones.

I think everyone who currently has a flip phone should think about that, because if they upgrade to a new phone, they'll have to get a smartphone. Also, the software and parts for flip phones will be phased out so maintaining current software and repairing flip phones won't be possible after a while.

When I was at the Verizon Wireless store back on April 12th when my old flip phone stopped working, I noticed that they had NO flip phones on display. I didn't ask if they still sold any, because I want a smartphone and I had my mother's old phone I could activate and use for a while. Anyone who wants a flip phone may end up having to do some searching for it.

I only have a land line at the moment, but at my former job, I managed a pool of about 30 cell phones which I loaned out to my co-workers who were taking field trips. We always got the basic no-frills phones, but even so, the older models sometimes got phased out- so that even if you still had, or could find, an older-model phone, you would not be able to activate it. Specifically, this was when they were including GPS function into all new phones so that if you made an emergency call, they would be able to find you- and older phones didn't have the necessary chip, or hardware.

 

[Forster]

Smart phones are the one aspect of technology I don't really care about so I've never gotten one, do have a regular cell that connects via bluetooth to wireless handsets all over the house so I dropped the land line. I did buy a MS Surface Pro when they came out though, with a docking station at home and at work I see it eventually replacing my desktop at work, home, my laptop and my Kindle fire. Won't replace my regular kindle though.

My boys want smart phones, they're going to have to pay for them themselves though and they're kinda cheep... er frugal.

 

[Wolfie]

I don't and won't have a smart phone. All I need my cell phone for is calling and texting. I am tied to a computer for 40 hours a week. I have zero desire to be on the Internet when I'm out and about.

If Verizon phases out all the simple phones, I'll go with someone else. There's always Jitterbug!

 

[Amy SF]

I was in the Verizon Wireless store on Friday to take care of an errand. While waiting for an employee to answer a question I had, I browsed a little. I happened to notice that they are indeed still offering a basic flip phone. I didn't take notice of any details about this phone because as you know I want my next cellphone to be a smartphone. But I just thought I'd mention this as I know some of you aren't as interested in having a smartphone as I am.

 

[Amy SF]

I don't and won't have a smart phone. All I need my cell phone for is calling and texting. I am tied to a computer for 40 hours a week. I have zero desire to be on the Internet when I'm out and about.

If Verizon phases out all the simple phones, I'll go with someone else. There's always Jitterbug!

I'm not entirely sure you'd be happy with a Jitterbug. It's like a Fisher-Price version of a flip phone.

Back when my mother was interested in upgrading to a new flip phone, she pointed out to me an ad for the Jitterbug and said she wanted to check it out in person rather than simply ordering it by mail. I did some checking and learned that they had them at Sears, so off we went to look at it. My mom decided that it was too large and clunky and wanted something smaller, so that's when my sister and I took her to Verizon to look.

That was when the guy had to go in the back to find a flip phone, the one my mother bought and which I am now using. It's a Samsung and I don't like it because it doesn't have some of the extra features I liked about my last flip phone. For one thing, you can't download any ringtones or other apps to it. You're stuck with whatever is already on it. It also doesn't have the notes section that my last phone had. That was damn useful. I had a lot of notes on that phone. The old phone also had a notes feature in the contacts section where I could add things like business hours, addresses, birthdays or whatever else I wanted. I could also enter email addresses for my contacts, which I can't do on the Samsung. The Samsung is also a little glitchy. A couple of times when I attempted to use the calendar feature, the phone completely froze and I couldn't do anything on it. I had to pull the battery out and put it back in in order to reset the phone and get it working again. The freezing of the phone also happened when I was attempting to retrieve a voicemail message a couple of months ago and I hit the wrong buttons on the phone or something. I really don't like this phone.

ETA: Another thing I don't like about the Samsung is that it was clearly designed for old folks. The top middle button is the 911 button IN RED and every so often I push it accidentally. Fortunately there's a prompt that asks me if I want to call 911, and I push the "no" button, but it's still annoying. The top middle button on my old phone was for setting a favorite feature as a shortcut. I had the alarm feature set that way.

 

[Calliegirl]

I have a smartphone and I hate it. I was talked into getting it by my daughter, and the phone company won't let me trade it for a regular simple phone. I guess they don't want to give up that extra data charge they collect.
Since it's a mini computer it has to load everything. If the tower is down or not working at full capacity (which happens about 6 days a week) it takes forever to load, even for things installed locally on the phone. On my old simple phone if I wanted to use the calender I just clicked on it and used it. On a smartphone you have to set up an account to use it.

 

[RascalsMom]

What type of phone do you have? I have an iPhone and I've never set up accounts to use things like the calendar. You CAN set up an iCloud account & store things there, but I don't, and it's not needed.

 

[mary1]

my regular old phone (non-smartphone) was acting up so my SO gave me his smartphone while he got a new one.
It's been a few months and...gosh...I actually like it. WOW! Of course, I don't use it as a phone too often. Now that we live together, I don't have to text him as much! haha

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I almost never use the phone part of my iPhone. I use it for everything but calling people. If there was more free wifi in my city, I could get by with an iPod touch.

 

[Calliegirl]

It's an android phone and it wouldn't let me access the calendar until I set up a google account. I probably could have downloaded a calendar app that wouldn't require that, but it's still a ridiculous amount of work just to look at dates on a calendar.

 

[mary1]

I almost never use the phone part of my iPhone. I use it for everything but calling people. If there was more free wifi in my city, I could get by with an iPod touch.

I used to have a simple cell phone and an ipod. It was great. The best part is that even if your iPod runs out of batteries, you're still "in touch."
That's the downside of a smart phone. It does so many things...that it drains the batteries. I have to charge mine once or twice a day depending.