> "the screen is too small to do any useful reading."
This is where I disagree. I love my smartphone (Galaxy S2!) because it lets me read my Google Reader and Kindle on the go. But if you don't like the experience of reading on the screen, I can see how its perceived usefulness will diminish.
Smartphone utility is probably also strongly correlated with time spent away from a laptop. I rarely use my smartphone at work or at home, but I tend to spend most of my time out and about on the weekends, so access to email, IM and Maps while out of the house is worth the price of admission. You are never out of touch, you can find the address/directions to anything, from anywhere, anytime.
Then add on camera, Facebook, Yelp for finding restaurants, Yahoo Fantasy Football app, Evernote for keeping workout logs and saving commonly run queries and I'm pretty much in love. But as always, YMMV.
This is where I disagree. I love my smartphone (Galaxy S2!) because it lets me read my Google Reader and Kindle on the go. But if you don't like the experience of reading on the screen, I can see how its perceived usefulness will diminish.
Smartphone utility is probably also strongly correlated with time spent away from a laptop. I rarely use my smartphone at work or at home, but I tend to spend most of my time out and about on the weekends, so access to email, IM and Maps while out of the house is worth the price of admission. You are never out of touch, you can find the address/directions to anything, from anywhere, anytime.
Then add on camera, Facebook, Yelp for finding restaurants, Yahoo Fantasy Football app, Evernote for keeping workout logs and saving commonly run queries and I'm pretty much in love. But as always, YMMV.