Issues. Plural.
They're expensive. They're fragile. They require overly expensive data plans. No local sync or desktop apps. Poorly-integrated apps. Poor battery life. Poor reliability. Questionable software quality/security.
That's all I can think of, off hand...
Oh, yeah... These things have unsubsidized prices in the hundreds-of-dollars range. How many other things can you buy that cost that much and are considered technologically obsolete within a year or two... or less?
Jim
LOL I beg to differ.
Having suffered through old style PDAs and phones like the Palm Treo / Centro, having local backups / data that were a pain in the rear to sync, and use, there is no way I'd go back.
Smart phones *can* be fragile, but you can use otterbox to keep them protected, or buy ruggedized phones to begin with. Some of them do require expensive data plans, but not all. T-mobile being a prime example where you can take a smartphone and just use calling plans with it. Apps are fairly well integrated, not sure how you measure that...in many cases they are superior to PC based software.
Battery life do need to improve, but my S3 can go 2 days without charging, and that's with medium use. That's pretty impressive considering what I use it for. Reliability has been outstanding with my Samsung S2 / S3. Security is also far better than PCs.
So many of these perceptions really aren't reality, and you could apply them to any technology, such as tablets, laptops, or even home networks.
Once you do go smartphone, and provided you have the desire to learn new technology, it is life changing. I know of no one who switched to a smartphone, used it for a month or so, and went back to a dumb phone. None.
But if you're happy with where you're at, that's fine too. You are just missing out on some killer services that many others find useful, but like they say - you don't know what you're missing until you've had it.
For me, some basic things I take for granted now are reading product reviews while out shopping for things, price comparisons, finding the closest store for a particular need, finding the hours of the store, all things I used to have to call up a family member who's at home - asking them to fire up the PC, and do those things remotely for me, which was a pain in the rear.
Smartphones provide a new level of self sufficiency that is simply amazing, but of course can be misused / abused as well. I hardly text, but I do a lot of video chat with family when I'm traveling for work, plus GPS navigation for hotels / restaurants, and many many other cool things.
, then I'll be taking my leave. At this point I don't think I'll have anything further to contribute to any of the "smart"phone forums, as I'll not be partaking.
