Last Updated on December 20, 2014 by Larious

The world is a global village with the ever evolving innovative technology which enables almost every human to own a smart phone, smart phone has come to stay in the lives of humans and has become a major necessity in the day-to-day operation and activities of humans. The Nigerian telephone market has come a long way from the era of “Poor people can’t afford telephones” to the present “everyone deserves to buy a smart phone”. But let’s face reality, do we really need smart phones?

I could still vividly remember when mobile phone first came to Nigeria, practically only the rich could afford to buy mobile phone and a single Sim card was sold about 20 – 40k. Humans were living smart right before the inception of mobile phones but this generation can’t seems to do anything without their smart phone, which has even made some people dull without the use of their smart phone. The question is “Do we really need a smart phone before we can be smart?” Smart phones were invented with the aim of making life easy for humans, and not make life complicated.

Mobile phones is now available for everyone unlike when it first came to Nigeria, it was off the range for most low-income earners, but along came massive mobile phone manufacturers with different label and brands of smart phones and operating systems, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian, Windows phone, and the Android. The introduction of Android, give birth to various affordable smart phones in the android market, where low-income and minimum wage earners are now proud owners of low ‘low-budget’ smart phones.

Actually buying a low-budget phone is not easy as it seems, as many potential smart phone buyers find themselves in a dilemma of which smart phones to buy. I sometimes give eliciting suggestions to fans on which phone to purchase with a particular income range or to help choose between two alternatives.

Factors to consider: Do You Really Need To Buy That Smart Phone? The Reality Check!!

•  Your Salary: The first thing to consider when buying a smart phone is your income. If you have only one source of income and your salary isn’t six figures, then please remove your eyes from the top shelves and look at middles shelves, You shouldn’t save up to buy a smart phone. There are better things to save up for than a device that can be damaged at first charge, first touch or first hello. If you can’t buy a smart phone out rightly, then it’s out of your range. In such a situation, it’s time to look at cheap affordable phones or you buy a fairly used device.
• Your Lifestyle: I consider it economic recklessness to carry a smart of N100,000 in your pocket while struggling for a bus of N100 at yaba Lagos, or buying an iPhone 6 and charging it with a “I better pass my neighbor generator”. If your smart phone doesn’t correlate with you lifestyle, people might be force to ask you; “who died?” when it is stolen, misplaced or damaged beyond repair.
•  Degree Of Carefulness: The capacitive touch screen of a smart phone is its Achilles. So if you aren’t exactly the careful type, then you’re better off buying a phone with corning glass screen technology and those don’t come cheap. It is not economic to buy a phone that cost 1/3 of the price to fix a damaged screen. Secondly, if you’re prone to losing your phone in buses (sliding out your pocket etc.), then be economic about your purchase or invest in a small sling bag to carry your phones in.
• Your Residential Area: Is your residential area safe? Or do you live in a remote area boy prone area in Mushin and you use an iPhone 6. Carrying a high budget phone in an area prone to mugging isn’t economic. A lady friend of mine recently got an iPhone 6 as her birthday gift and was “feeling fly” with the phone on her street one evening, The next thing she saw were bright stars and “plenty plenty” shadows running away. When her sight was restored, her phone was gone. Please keep your phones out of sight when commuting in commercial buses especially if you’re sitting by the window.

Hope this article has inspired someone and has opened you to set your priorities right!!!!