Do You Really Need An Expensive Phone?

For 26-year-old Arvind Kamble, the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch was an epoch-making event. “We tech enthusiasts were waiting impatiently for this launch. Though I think that the Broadway style launch was unnecessary, but I am happy that a good phone is here finally. I am going to buy the moment it arrives in the Indian market,” quipped the Music Production Manager.  But when asked how much would it cost, Kamble’s anticipation turned into a reasonable rant.  “It would be somewhere around Rs.45, 000 as its Samsung’s answer to iPhone 5. I know it is insanely priced, but good things don’t come cheap,” he said.



Good things don’t come cheap? Think about the good old Nokia 3310. Agreed, it was not a smartphone, but its durability was indubitable. Also, it did not cost an arm and a leg. Kingshuk Mukherjee, a marathoner who uses a modest Samsung CDMA thinks that spending a huge amount on a smartphone is unnecessary. “The purpose of phone is to connect with people and that can be done via a humble CDMA phone too. Also for a marathoner like me, a smartphone is too delicate to handle,” he said.

Today the trend is to succumb to Apple juggernaut which forces you to spend on the different versions of iPhones, latest being the iPhone 5. iPhone has a passionate fan base that would continue buying various versions of the phone without showing a sign of monotony.  Latest add to the fanboy list is of Senior Copy Editor of a financial portal, Sagar Salvi. “iPhone 5 is one of the few accessories on a person which makes others take a note of him,” said Salvi. When asked if it was a superfluous purchase, he said, “I think I could have saved 10-15k, but I wanted to go for the best.”



But even in this smartphone consumer frenzy market, there are few who still swear by their old Nokia phones. 52-year-old Ajit Parkar, an Office Superintendent at Railways still uses a Nokia 1208 model. “It’s not that I cannot afford an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy phone, I find it unnecessary spending on it. Though I got one for my daughter, but for me, I am loyal to Nokia,” Parkar told us. 23-year-old Neha Pinto who recently got her first smartphone, hates phones which cost over 10K. “I got a smartphone which has all the required specifications and is under 10K. I don’t think one should pay so much for a phone, unless it teleports you to your favourite destination,” said Pinto.

Before letting a smartphone burn a huge hole into your pocket, you need to answer introspective questions like, 'Do I really need that expensive phone?', 'Am I buying it because my boss/friend/colleague has it?’ ‘What else can I buy in that amount?’ Be a smart consumer who never follows herd mentality. (From Indiatimes)