Do I really need a smartphone?

Ok.. so hey.. I'm a tech junkie.

I love ALL things gadget like and play-able. And every year, I get the bite of the mobile bug. The itch to change my phone comes swift and quick and I find myself surfing the blogs, review sites and of course cnet asia for my fix.

My trusty and lovable sony ericsson walkman phone has been the love of my tech life for more than a year half already. Urge to change it never came since I was totally satisfied with it.

Then one day, it finally hit me. The rise of the smart phones.

I mean, at first, they were all big, clunky, black and UGLY. No attraction there. But now.. the phone makers are getting a little more creative with their products and you get the smaller.. cuter.. and some prettier ones out there luring the likes of me towards it.

So now, I find myself asking the question... Do I really need a smart phone?

Few websites actually address the issue. Most of them tend to focus alot more on how to choose a smartphone to suit your lifestyle, so the decision the get a smartphone is assumed to have been made.

So let's analyse this.

What do smartphones have that normal phones don't really give? - An interface that surrounds ease of emailing and scheduling and web surfing.

Which is why they tend to come with touchscreen qwerty keyboards, or built on ones. And so, they throw in a wider screen to make email reading easier and of course surfing the web too. All in all, its all the light online activities that someone on the road can carry out without accessing a computer.

So that being said, the people most suited to carry a smartphone and utilize to its full capacity are........ people who travel alot, require constant checking of their emails and communication with people.

So what about me?

Well, I'm a computer geek. Spend most of my time in front of a computer. Either my laptop or my desktop. At this point of time in my life, emails are more of a social thing rather than a work thing. (I kinda try and avoid reading my work email account unless i absolutely have to) The bulk of the computing I tend to do is programming. And them teeny tiny things there don't do THAT job.

So bottom line is that i don't really NEED a smartphone at all, unless one day they're able to pack a editor and compiler for my programming needs.

BUT being a tech junkie, nobody ever said a smart phone can't be a want.. and honestly, I just want one to play with it and have some fun with it.