The Future of the Feature Phone?

[sentinelsx]

I'm just skeptical enough to believe that the carriers are purposefully squeezing decent feature phones off their shelves so you'll be forced to have a data plan. There's two people in my house (wife and son) who have no need what-so-ever for data, but there's no feature phone out there worth a crap, so now they both have my old iPhones and ATT's lowest data plan.

It sucks AT&T forces customers to have a data plan. While we Canadians are usually jealous of your carrier plans and 2 year contracts, none of the carriers here forces you to use a data plan if you get a smartphone without buying a data plan. Sure you don't get the full subsidy but if you have a phone by any other means, you are free to use it on a voice only plan.

 

[aneftp]

Data is the only growth in the cell phone industry (especially in USA).

Texting used to be a cash cow for carriers but they saw writing on wall with apps like whatsapp than iMessage etc killing the real need for texts. That's why they basically stopped the $5 text plans cause they knew most would go for those limited texts since they can circumvent texts with iMessage.

Requiring data for smartphone has been required at att since September 2009. At first it was $30 unlimited. Than att quickly realize better than end unlimited. Still require data and charge people even more with tiered data.

Data isn't getting any cheaper even though LTE is supposed to more cost effective for carriers.