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I’ve been thinking recently about what I actually use my iPhone for?
Selfies – if you know me, you know that’s a big tick.
Facebook – big tick.
Emails – tick.
Messaging – tick.
FaceTime – tick.
Google – tick.
About a dozen or so very useful applications around travel and fitness – tick.
Text message – small tick.
Telephone calls – effectively no tick.
I hardly make any outgoing calls and the majority of incoming calls remain unanswered because I’m in meetings, travelling or simply refuse to respond to “no caller ID”, “unknown” or numbers that I do not recognise.
I’m helped by the fact that there is simply no mobile phone signal on the street where we live, even though we are in a heavily-populated South Manchester suburb – some anomaly to do with where the masts are I suppose.
Most of my calls are 2-minute exchanges with family or colleagues that could be done by messaging.
When I do answer a rare voice mail, I will respond almost always with a message, a text or an email.
And yet most of the cost of my iPhone rental is monthly line tariff for the telephone service plus VAT.
In my case that’s an average of about £55.00 per month, none of which relates to any extra calls or services.
So the question is “what would happen if I simply did not own an iPhone and used an iPod, iPad or Macbook for all of my communication?”
Given that my current contract is shortly to renew (and that the hype around the next iPhone will shortly begin), its time to ask myself whether £600 per year for a few random calls is worth the money?
I gave up driving a car a few years ago – and that had a hugely positive impact – life simply became simpler (excluding air travel – which I’m currently attempting to abandon).
Perhaps the next step is to opt out of mobile phone ownership and disconnect the land-line at home?
I can only begin to imagine what will happen the next time I have to fill in a form for some corporate.
Mobile number: n/a
Home number: n/a
Office number: n/a
The idea is growing on me already.
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