If you're a phone is it better to be Dumb or Smart

Dumb Phones are they really useless? Smart phones own the majority of the adult market but does that mean its better at then dumb phones at its most basic feature, calling? A study has come out by Pew staying that dumb phones (featured phones) do somethings better then its more expensive counter part.

This study comes at a surprise since many people buying smart phones shell out 3 to 4 times the cost of special needs counterpart. One would think with the extra bling, simple tasks like few dropped calls would expected. The study found things four things about the difference between smart phones and dumb phone dropped calls, unwanted sales/marketingcalls, spam/unwanted text, and slow download speeds. Let run down the list and see if one or all of the studies findings could be true.

The most basic use of cell phones is for calls. Which begs the question, why does the cheaper phone get less drop calls. According to the study 35% of smart phone users experience drop calls but only 28% of dumb phone. Calls could be for many reasons. For smart phones is could be the technology of switching between towers. ATT is notoriously bad at this on their GSM network. Another reason why dumb phones drop less is because it only uses the 2g radio to connect calls and some smart phones use a combination of the two, switching between 2g and 4g could cause the call to drop. The study notes that smart phone users are three times likely to drop calls vs its simpler brother.

Spam text have become as frequent as spam email. 29% of smart phone owners have said to get spam texts every week. At 9% less the dumb phone users take the gold for less marketing texts. This could be because of the apps or os on the phone giving the number to marketers.

Dumb phones get fewer slow downloads. This was a shocker but might be able to be explained. Dumb phones mostly have dedicated applications such as, email, gps map and light internet browser. These applications should run very fast since the are code just for that phone as more other apps on smart phones are just coded for the OS, which could produce lag. Also, there is again the matter of switching radio, 4g 3g and edge, this could cause a connection error, slowing the download speeds.

This study is quite interesting. It shows smart phones are all there yet and still have a long way to go. At the same time, people seem to care less and less about phone calls. The difference in numbers for dropped calls is staggering, but people still buy smart phones by the millions. One would hope that think makes phone manufactures push them selves to make better phones for the future, because the phones of yesterday can still stand taller then its more accessorized younger brother.

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/dumbphones-dropped-calls-smartphones_n_1738321.html

Picture Sources dreamtime.com,www.sott.net,www.fox.com,slashgear.com, berrygeeks.files.wordpress.com,huffingtonpost.com