4 ms·

I don't (I am 23) am I in the minority now? I wonder what has to happen for the older generation to adopt smartphones (other than the obvious answer of the curr

I don't (I am 23) am I in the minority now? I wonder what has to happen for the older generation to adopt smartphones (other than the obvious answer of the current generation becoming the older one). Don't we see a bunch of apps and services tailoring to the younger generation? What if we tried targeting the older generation would that increase adoption?

icefox 15y ago
At least for those I have asked it seems like it is a combo of their plan going up for renewal so they get a "new phone" or that their work gives them a smartphone. Could be a simple as obtaining a smart phone isn't on the radar of top 10 things that will improve their life.
bartonfink 15y ago
I don't either, and although 28 isn't old, I simply don't see the need for one. I'm a software developer, which means that for nearly all day I'm never more than about 10 feet away from a computer. I'm married with a family, so I go out socially maybe once a month. Further, I make plans before I go out, so there's not much reason to have mobile access to the web. I don't have one because I simply don't need it. Honestly, what would drive me to getting a smartphone is a data-only network so I could use Skype or another VOIP program for my telephony, and then have data "for free." I pay $140 a month for a family plan with some extras, but mostly that goes towards voice traffic. A data plan worth having would easily shoot that over $200 a month, and it's just not worth it.
- cryptoz 15y ago
  I have a smartphone (and tablet) specifically because I'm a software developer, actually. I am probably an edge case, but I'd assume that not to be the case in the HN audience: I pretty much never use my smartphone to make phone calls. In fact, I absolutely hate phone calls and do everything I can to avoid them. Having a smartphone is perhaps the best way yet invented to avoid phone calls! As a software developer, I see the future of our field solidly taking place inside the ecosystems being built on smartphone platforms today. The fact that it's a phone or that it goes in your pocket is 100% irrelevant to why smartphones are interesting or useful from the point of view of a software developer. Their OS and ecosystems represent new models of user interaction, new expectations from software as well as new paradigms in data visualization, etc. Smartphones are extremely exciting and they have nothing at all to do with communication with family or phone calls. They are the new computer.
  - hessenwolf 15y ago
    I have an android. It's an amazing mini-computer, but a shit phone.
  - igouy 15y ago
    > Having a smartphone is perhaps the best way yet invented to avoid phone calls! Not having a phone is "the best way..." Also SMS.
joebadmo 15y ago
Social pressure. A friend of mine just got both of her parents iPhones. Why did they want them? Because a lot of people they knew had one.

icefox 15y ago

At least for those I have asked it seems like it is a combo of their plan going up for renewal so they get a "new phone" or that their work gives them a smartphone. Could be a simple as obtaining a smart phone isn't on the radar of top 10 things that will improve their life.

bartonfink 15y ago

I don't either, and although 28 isn't old, I simply don't see the need for one. I'm a software developer, which means that for nearly all day I'm never more than about 10 feet away from a computer. I'm married with a family, so I go out socially maybe once a month. Further, I make plans before I go out, so there's not much reason to have mobile access to the web. I don't have one because I simply don't need it. Honestly, what would drive me to getting a smartphone is a data-only network so I could use Skype or another VOIP program for my telephony, and then have data "for free." I pay $140 a month for a family plan with some extras, but mostly that goes towards voice traffic. A data plan worth having would easily shoot that over $200 a month, and it's just not worth it.

cryptoz 15y ago
I have a smartphone (and tablet) specifically because I'm a software developer, actually. I am probably an edge case, but I'd assume that not to be the case in the HN audience: I pretty much never use my smartphone to make phone calls. In fact, I absolutely hate phone calls and do everything I can to avoid them. Having a smartphone is perhaps the best way yet invented to avoid phone calls! As a software developer, I see the future of our field solidly taking place inside the ecosystems being built on smartphone platforms today. The fact that it's a phone or that it goes in your pocket is 100% irrelevant to why smartphones are interesting or useful from the point of view of a software developer. Their OS and ecosystems represent new models of user interaction, new expectations from software as well as new paradigms in data visualization, etc. Smartphones are extremely exciting and they have nothing at all to do with communication with family or phone calls. They are the new computer.
- hessenwolf 15y ago
  I have an android. It's an amazing mini-computer, but a shit phone.
- igouy 15y ago
  > Having a smartphone is perhaps the best way yet invented to avoid phone calls! Not having a phone is "the best way..." Also SMS.

joebadmo 15y ago

Social pressure. A friend of mine just got both of her parents iPhones. Why did they want them? Because a lot of people they knew had one.