Over Exposure of Cell/Smart Phones By Tech Sites

[buwish]

Over the past few years, a lot of tech minded sites have begun to cover new cell/smart phones like it’s going out of style. What I mean by that is that they devote a lot of their page space to speculated phones and new phones that just hit the market. That’s fine and all, as they are doing their “job” by keeping us informed on the latest and greatest. However, I wonder if they realize that the vast majority of us cannot rush out and buy these phones due to the constraints of contracts and the fact that most of us cannot afford to pay full price for a new phone every 6 months when something new comes out.

I guess my point is that I find cell phone coverage overblown on many sites. Sure, I'd love to go out and get these new great devices, but that would mean I'd have to drop out of my contract with my current provider at a fairly substantial cost or pay full price for the new phone if it happened to be on my carrier.

I’m not referring to Tom’s here, as it is more a PC minded site. Rather I am referring to other sites like engadget, gizmodo, etc… that tend to cover a lot of cell/smartphones.

I wonder if anyone else feels the same about this?

 

[Guest]

I'm just looking at my Nokia 2610 (vintage 2006) and reflecting on the call I had from my brother about his 15 year old son planning to get the newest iPhone to replace the iPhone he bought about 18 months ago.

I think the problem is that the network owners have convinced a whole generation that getting a better phone will get them more friends. Their UK advertising has recently focused on frequent, quick, access to social sites on the promise that you won't miss out on anything.

Glad to say that the 'friends' shown in the ads and the activities one might miss out on are so utterly vacuous that I'd gladly pay to avoid them.

The Nokia 2610 is ugly and cheap looking, has poor screen visibility (or did until I prised off the reflective plastic that obscured it) and has a terrible keyboard. But it does one thing better than any smartphone. The battery just keeps working regardless of age or how much I use it -- so unlike the smartphone user I don't have to charge daily or risk getting cut off.

My phone may do nothing else -- but it always works as a phone.

 

[buwish]

That's another way of looking at it, i.e. from the carrier's perspective. Perhaps the carriers and their advertising are to blame for a lot of the exposure that cell phones and such are getting. I guess you could say that manufacturer's have a lot to do with it as well, i.e. PR stunts like blurry photos of new phones, Apple's little "lost" iphone 4 incident, etc...

In regard to your Nokia fihart, I've been seeing a lot of that around the tech sites. Some, if not many users prefer to have a phone that does one thing: make phone calls. There is nothing wrong with that, heck, if I wasn't such a "techie" I'd probably do the same thing to save myself the trouble of salivating over the latest and greatest smart phones. Then again, I use perhaps the simplest of the smart phones: A Blackberry. It makes calls, does e-mail well, texting is breeze on it, and if necessary, the Internet is right there. I've got a few apps, but mainly things like news and such- nothing too fancy. If I could afford it, I'd be tempted to switch to ATT for the new Torch, but I'm sure there will be something greater in a matter of months anyways.

 

[techchick]

I agree with you with you 120% The companies have left me scratching my head plenty. I do love all the features, updates, Android this that and the third but at the same time, can't cancel my contract to jump on the latest and greatest.
I did end up getting the Atrix for a long term investment, I just hope I get my monies worth, and it looks like I might. I also posted similar post to what your saying on http/www.motorolaatrixforum.com/
its listed in the Off Topic section. Good luck