The surrender: I'm buying a smartphone

This post comes from Lynn Mucken at MSN Money.

If you are a bit like me -- not adverse to technology but perhaps a little reluctant to embrace it -- then you should read "Spoiled by the All-in-One Gadget."

The New York Times' Sam Grobart postulates that the smartphone is not just a useful tool and source of endless entertainment, but also the biggest money-saver since the clip-out coupon. And he makes a darn fine case.  Post continues after video.

Grobart takes a very inexpensive smartphone -- a refurbished iPhone 3GS currently on sale by AT&T for $19 -- includes the least-expensive data and voice plans and a two-year contract, and calculates that a customer would pay about $1,800 over 24 months, including taxes and fees.

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Then he computes what it would cost to duplicate what that package has to offer, if you had to buy the tools separately:

• Cellphone (at least $800 over 24 months: $20 for a device, plus $25 or more per month on a prepaid plan, plus taxes and fees).
• Mobile e-mail reader ($430: the Peek 9, an e-mail reader, is $70; two years of service costs $360).
• Music player (an iPod Nano is $149).
• Point-and-shoot camera (around $200).
• Camcorder (around $200).
• GPS unit (they start at $80).
• Portable DVD player (they start at $60).
• Voice recorder (around $40).
• Watch (around $30).
• Calculator (around $10).

He comes up with a total two-year cost of $1,999, a savings of $199.

Just to be picky, I should note that he failed to list the expense of hiring a Sherpa for 16 hours a day to haul all of the above around for you. Or, if you are the hardy type, the costs of a heavyweight backpack and the resulting spine surgery.

And, I could point out that Grobart doesn't mention that Google is now working with MasterCard and Citigroup to create an Android app that will allow you to charge your purchases by waving it over a small reader at checkout counters. This is the latest upgrade from the systems being used by Starbucks (bar code on your phone screen) and the Citigroup, Bling Nation and PayPal combo (ID strip pasted onto your phone). That means less-bulky purses and wallets.

But back to the issue. The Times article has persuaded me to buy a smartphone. For several years, I have been telling myself that my cell phone was enough, or sometimes too much (I leave it at home sometimes).

After all, I have two digital cameras (one old, one new), a very nice digital voice recorder, a GPS unit in both cars, two watches (both in bedroom drawers), CD decks and radios in both vehicles, and a DVR and Blu-ray and two MacBook Pros in my condo.

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But reading this made me get honest: The watches are in my sock drawer because I can look at my cellphone for the time of day. In the rush out the door, I often forget the camera (or fail to bring batteries or empty the card). The voice recorder, which I bought because it is compact, is, after all, bigger than a smartphone. The GPS unit is a pain to get out of the glove box and mount on the dashboard (and it never sticks there on hot days). I never seem to have the appropriate CD in the car, and the radio stations I like always seem to be 1,000 watts and fade out anytime I pass a tree.

And, of course, there is the biggie: When I walk in my door, I rush to the computer to check my email.

OK, so now it is clear that even if I don't need a smartphone, I surely want one. That leaves only one last deterrent: the plan cost.

My wife, the lovely Nancy, has a smartphone. She was, I believe, the second person in America to get one. And I'm getting her an iPad for her birthday. Our electronics bill -- cable TV, high-speed Internet, cell and smartphone -- already appears to be upward of $200 a month. I don't know for sure; she pays those bills online and is very evasive when I bring up the issue, which is seldom because it always results in her suggesting I cut back on my golf to free up more money.