I have never bothered upgrading to a 'smart' phone - I am happy with my flip phone that is great at making calls and texting. I don't need games, I don't need email access and I don't need the poor battery life a lot of those phones suffer from. I charge my phone once every 3 or 4 days and I am happy.
Should the need arise, I generally carry my netbook with me everywhere I go - and it only comes out if there is an emergency. At least then I have internet access and all the tools to actually make a difference as opposed to just being able to respond to an email. If it isn't an emergency, then it can wait.
I find myself in the strange position of doing mobile apps for a living but not really using my own smartphone much. The main thing that would keep me from going back to a flip phone is that texting on a phone keyboard is just too painful.
I also find the maps application pretty useful sometimes, but I have uninstalled a bunch of other distracting time wasters from the phone.
I was running an agency up until recently which did mobile apps. Always an interesting conversation walking into a new client meeting with my "burner" Nokia 1610 and explaining that I knew what I was talking about but had made a conscious decision to disconnect.
I couldn't go back to texting on a standard keypad, but I find the keyboard on the Alias 2 to be quite straightforward and is generally quite painless (except when I miss the space bar and hit the end key - that's just poorly placed).
I hear you on that. As far as the cell phone companies are concerned I don't own a smart phone, but I wanted to write some apps for one so I got a used phone and hook it up to WiFi when it's time to code.
Should the need arise, I generally carry my netbook with me everywhere I go - and it only comes out if there is an emergency. At least then I have internet access and all the tools to actually make a difference as opposed to just being able to respond to an email. If it isn't an emergency, then it can wait.