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The Cell Phone That Says “I Give Up!”
By JLP | December 19, 2007
I find these phones humorous. Some of you may not.
Here’s a phone for the person who wants to convey to society, “I give up. I’ll never be able to use a real cell phone:”
What’s funny to me is that these phones were made to be marketed to seniors but do these people look like they can’t handle a real phone?
Oh, and since this is a personal finance blog, I thought we’d take a look at their rate plans:
I might be wrong, but those rates seem on the high-side to me. I don’t have the most generous plan in the world but I know I pay less than $30 per month for something like 300 minutes (I don’t use my cell phone that much!). They also offer add-on minutes starting at $.25 per minute. Granted, these phones are being marketed to people who wouldn’t normally have a cell phone but these rates do seem high. Oh, and to top it off, they also charge $147 for a phone that looks like it is worth $10. I mean, really, $147? That really seems high.
Thoughts?
Topics: Miscellaneous | 11 Comments »
December 19th, 2007 at 10:41 am
With so few buttons, relative to a regular cell phone, there should be a huge discount on this cell phone’s price. $147 is RIDICULOUS!
December 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I have an aversion to phones that try to do and be everything for everybody, cramming in all sorts of useless gadgets. But this phone goes too far in the other direction. And like you say, the price seems pretty expensive for what you get. I pay about $50/month (including taxes) for a plan that splits 300 minutes between two phones. Like you, I don’t do that much talking.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:19 am
It’s clever. They are marketing to the people in the picture, but the phones aren’t for them. The phones are for their parents– people who are 80, 90+ years old and can’t figure out the DVD player or email, either. How many of you have parents/grandparents with a phone in the glove compartment (given by a guilt-ridden child) that he or she can’t figure out how to open, let alone turn on and call someone.
December 19th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I am going to have to agree on the price of the phone. One could get a much nicer phone at half the price, and the air time is over priced too. If an elderly person could barely see the buttons on a normal cell phone, or had problems with their dexterity, I could see maybe a family member giving them one of these phones for emergencies purposes, but then one has to think, ‘where would someone that old be going by themselves’. Not to mention, they’re probably in a nursing home, or assisted living already and have no use for a cell phone in the first place. Really, the only use I could find for a phone like this is for someone who is near the age of being sent to a retirement home, or assisted living, and for whatever reason still gets out of the house from time to time. The two people in the picture probably own an iPhone! That’s funny. Good stuff.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Overpriced, especially with $.35/minute. Our plan is like $72/month for 450 rollover minutes between two phones and virtually unlimited night/weekend time. And the phones came with the plan.
I think this is silly.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Overpriced but still potentially useful. At least the minutes don’t expire monthly…
December 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Ok, had to put my two cents in. I take care of a fifty-some-odd year old disabled person. He is very sharp but has problems with small buttons. SO, the large buttons would come in handy. And while he can’t travel anywhere, he does live by himself. You don’t have to be old or in a nursing home to be the target of this product. But yes, it is over-priced.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Yeah, I gotta agree with Angie. My wife had a stroke and has trouble with the small buttons on cell phones. She just asked for one of these phones as well (although she wants the one that has the big number buttons). I was actually thinking that it was a pretty good deal.
She can’t speak all that well, so she almost never uses the phone, and when she does it is really quick. So for us, $10/month with really expensive minutes is way better that $72/month with infinite minutes. Even with an expensive up-front cost for the phone I can still expect to come out ahead.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:51 am
I’d agree that for most folks this phone would be ridiculous. But then again, for someone like my grandfather (90 this summer) who still lives alone and occasionaly drives, but has problems seeing small stuff and isn’t quite as “into” technology (although he does do email), this type of thing might be useful.
Overall it’s a crock though
December 20th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I’m 32, healthy (i.e., capable of pressing small buttons), and would use this phone plan if it was even remotely competitive. The regular cell phone companies treat everyone as if they were a 14 year old girl. While most Americans may act that way, some of us think that gadgets and fancy pictures are fo’ suckas. Please, Jitterbug, make the numbers work.
December 24th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I don’t get it – if you want an emergency phone, why not just get any old deactivated phone and use the free 911 feature? Or a practically free new retail trackfone or whatever.
I’m sure 911 would be happy to get you a tow, ambulance, etc, and you don’t need any monthly plan at all. Plus, if you set all the speed dials to 911, and use most phones’ 9 feature for emergency, all you have to do is hit any button and “talk”.