Something strange seems to have happened in our house recently. My wife has the HTC Desire S. She loves it, and she’s broken it more times than I can remember (insurance is a must). A few months ago she came to the end of her contract, but she’s not upgraded and she doesn’t want to.
Me, I’m the complete other end of the spectrum. I upgrade before the end of the contract and usually end up paying through the nose for it. However, I was a bit puzzled by the fact that she didn’t want the latest and greatest phone.
I’m happy with this, I know how it works, I like it.
…she tells me. I did try to argue with this, and I know she’s quite smitten with the iPhone so I showed her some of the iPhone deals that were available. She wasn’t interested. I figured she might be waiting for the new iPhone 5, but no – she said she would buy an iPhone 4S if she wanted to, but she didn’t – the Desire S suits her fine and she’s sticking with it.
Call me crazy, but I couldn’t let it lie. During a trip to a local shopping centre I showed her the new Galaxy SIII, the Sony Xperia handsets and the HTC One series. Nope.. they weren’t “like” her Desire S and she wanted to stick.
So, more than 4 months after the end of her contract she’s still got the Desire S and she’s more than happy with it. Sure, I’m puzzled, but I’m intrugued to know if you fall into this category too. Are you a “keeper” instead of an “upgrader” ?
why are complaining, use her upgrade to get yourself a new phone!
Upgrader, but I’m well aware of people who are keepers….
If you are happy with a phone why upgrade, if you know it and like it why change?
My missus was the same with her 3gs, she ummed and ahhhd over an upgrade, took her 5 months before she finally succumbed to the 4s, she still doesn’t like it!
Thing is, if the contract has finished have you moved to a cheaper but same mins/text/data contract?
This finally seems to be reaching the normal user and it probably has to do with the standardisation of the smartphone concept.
The addition of long contracts actually hinders phone companies because something spectacular from phone makers needs to be grabbing consumer attention and slow down (ceiling reaching) in development merely stagnates market forces.
This has allowed Android to create its own market, and Windows to start catching up.
With Nokia going the way of a super camera perhaps we will see the market opened up again with competition being strong, prices dropping and people deciding that actually, financially I can be bothered to sign up to a new deal; perhaps one not costing me two to three years of expense.
I’ve never understood this. Part of the costs involved in your contract is to pay for the handset.
Fair enough. If you are happy with your phone then that’s fine but take an upgrade anyway!
You can then sell the new phone.
Or at the very least. Make sure the phone company drops your package to the cheapest you can afford to go, still keeping your allowances. Otherwise they are quids in
Instead of upgrading, I get money off my tariff. Currently paying £5 pcm for 100 mins, unlimited txt and 3gb data with t mobile due to this.
Keeper. Currently running ICS on a 2 year old HTC Desire thanks to Sandvold and the XDA folks, no issues so far been using it as my daily driver for a while. 600 mins, ulmt texts and a 1gb of data for £21, love my phone and my plan. Shes good for another year at least especially when there’s already threads on XDA about the possibility of porting Jelly bean to it. I’ll change when I cant port no more.
I used to be an upgrader. Back in the Sony Ericsson T68i – P800 – P910 – P990 – P1 days I would always upgrade (with varying successes).
However no longer. I have an 18mnth old Desire HD and my contract ran out last December and I have no intention of upgrading yet.
The whole joy of upgrading used to be the revolutionary new piece of kit that was coming out that was going to change everything. It would happen once every 18 months to 2 years and the chat on the forums was great. Now there is a new phone every 7 days that is marginally different from the last but on the whole identical. Who cares about Android 3.3 or 3.4 or 4.0? Who cares about dual core or quad core? Who cares about 8MP or 12MP cameras? Stop enhancing and start innovating.
So until something comes along that blows me away I shall stick with my HTC Desire HD.
You should never remain on your contract after it has expired. It doesn’t make financial sense. You should swap to a sim only deal, where you are not paying excess towards the cost of the handset that you got at the start of your contract.
I was going to say the same… Most phone contracts cost quite a bit extra to subsidise the handset. I have an iPhone 4 as my main phone (a number of others as my secondary phones of course!), and I decided to stick with it at the end of my 18 month contract. As soon as it was over, I called Vodafone and asked to be changed to one of their 30-day rolling contracts, as this will give me the flexibility to change to something new the day I get fed up with the old one.
I must confess, I use my phone so much (mainly for non-phone stuff), I fully expected it to be a broken, scratched mess by now, but it almost looks like the day it was bought, and the battery life doesn’t appear to have suffered yet. Seems quite a waste to pay all that money for an upgrade when all I’d probably get is a 64GB iPhone 4S, which is a marginally faster and more capacious phone than the one I have…
I can’t blame your wife at all for sticking – if it does what she wants it to, what’s the point.
That said, I tend to satisfy my craving for new tech by always having a secondary Android phone or two which I buy sim-free for my work contract…
Further to my previous, swap to sim only, if you are not ready to upgrade due to the phone you want not being available/released etc
I buy all my phones sim free. It can be expensive, but it’s my hobby. I don’t really drink or smoke, so it’s my only vice.
You’d have thought she’d have liked the One S…..
As many have said, she’s giving her money away to the carrier now she’s out of contract period.
My wife is the same. She likes her iPhone, doesn’t want to change. Laughs at my phones with their ‘ridiculous’ screens…….
+1 “I buy all my phones sim free. It can be expensive, but it’s my hobby. I don’t really drink or smoke, so it’s my only vice.”
I’ve always upgraded ASAP but my contract just expired on my Desire and I’ve swapped to a £10/ month SIM only deal. With Cyanogenmod, my phone still feels like new 🙂 I’m not sold on the idea of getting a new phone with >4″ screen. I am tempted by the HTC One S though….
Had my Galaxy S2 for a year and feel no need to upgrade. So went SIM Only with Three. After cashback I get 600mins, Unlimited Texts and 1GB data for less than £6 a month.
Your Wife has it right. I have the same phone and I cant fault it, its a workhorse. When you look at the new phones the tech has plateaued and the screens are massive- to big to carry and not big enough to replace a tablet. I think the G/note is the only bridge between phone and tablet. I’ve ordered an N7 and will keep my Desire S for at least another 18 months- didn’t Tom Ransom have his Hero for ever?
My wife will probably not be an upgrader either and she has a Desire S. The reason is quite simple and I agree with her. All the new decent phones have huges 4.3 or 4.7 inch screens and she has small hands and likes a smaller phone. The one V is not really an upgrade from the desire S and no other phone fits the bill at the moment.
Upgrader all the way. As in, in the past 12 months, I’ve had a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, SE Xperia Arc, HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S2 and now a Galaxy S3. I’ve also briefly owned an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 4. Although to be fair, they were mostly used by my partner and classed as my partner’s phone (well also owning an S2). We have more active contracts than a household should have though lol. Sold my S2 to pay off my Vodafone contract though and switched to T-Mobile for the S3 and my partner has done the same, even though both were £200+ to pay off (as much as the S2 was though so works out OK).
I’m going to try and keep the S3 for at least a year though this time, the S2 I only got in March lol.