Do Europeans Have Smartphones?

Nokia...haha...flip phone days.
You ever text on a flip phone?

 

Jam tins with string and courier pigeons.

What a ridiculous thread. Where does Nokia originate from?

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Thinking the same thing!

 

What phone do you have?

 

I spent eight years in Laos, returned last September. Laos has a fabulous telecommunication system. Everyone is on wireless. The old telephone lines put in by the French are starting to seriously deteriorate and it's very expensive (and labour intensive) to replace them. So what does the Lao government do via Lao Telecom, put up mobile phone towers. Everyone has a mobile and mostly smart phones. I was on 4G for the internet at home using a modem with a sim card slot. D-Link and Huawei make great models. MiFi pocket routers are also very popular for internet access. It would cost me around $140 for five months of unlimited downloads with great download speeds. My phone was only 3G compatible. 3G and 4G is also pretty good in outlying areas.

All you needed to do was go to the local market or corner mobile phone store, buy a sim card (there are about six or seven telcos, Lao Telecom being the government owned telco) and a scratch card for recharging. About $12.00. You can even choose your own sim card number. No contracts to enter into and the sim card is registered on the system the second you either send a text, make a phone call or access the internet. $10 worth of credit is good for about three months if you don't use your phone. I only used my phone for calls and texting and it cost me about five bucks a month. Telcos are very competitive. It is smarter to sign 100 people up at $10 than 10 people at $100. Market saturation. Most mobile phones are already unlocked at purchase.

By the way, my mobile phone is on a prepaid system here in Australia which is probably the most popular way to go. I get back to Australa and find the telecommunications expensive and nowhere near as good as Laos.

 

Android

 

What Android?

 

Three or four year old Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini that I bought in Laos. Best phone I've ever owned.

 

Europeans with Smartphones? Unlikely. Last I heard, they still live in caves, or on trees.

 

What did you have before?

 

Certainly not, in polite society one's butler deals with such things!

 

Is it important?

 

Just wondering.

 

LOL!! Brilliant map.

In any case, I am not quite sure if the original post is tongue in cheek or serious. I would hope for the former, but one would never know.

When it comes to the consumer tech disciples, I can, however, see how they live paycheck to paycheck, trying to pay for the latest gadgets, like the latest galaxy Sxxx for them and all their kids. And they look down on people on prepaid, just like they look down on people riding their bicycle -- because in their limited world this means those people are poor and, thus, unworthy.

I, however, am happy to give other people this impression. My Windows 10M smartphone cost $30, is on prepaid ($8 a month) and my kids won't get their own smartphone until they are in high school. Oh, and I often bike my 12 year old quality bike to work too -- sometimes getting some funny looks from drivers as in: The poor guy doesn't make enough to afford a car. It's the frugal thing.

Back to the OP: In Germany, mobile plans are actually much better than in the US. you can get unlimited everything for Eur 19/month. No need to pay $120 per month many people on contract pay here in the US, just to be able to show off their newest toy.

 

The original post shows how little knowledge many Americans have or anything outside their borders.

 

Did you ever use one of them? I did. When we got our punch pad phone we thought we were something.

 

I had one as recently as 15 years ago and used it until the local telco stopped supporting pulse dialing. Surprisingly enough I saw an ad for a box you could use to change the pulses of a rotary phone into touch tones so you could still use them.

 

If that's tongue in cheek it's pretty lame

https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-many-smartphones-are-currently-in-use-in-Europe

2 billion worldwide. One would think some are in Europe.

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If that's tongue in cheek it's pretty lame

https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-many-smartphones-are-currently-in-use-in-Europe

2 billion worldwide. One would think some are in Europe.

 

Windows is an operating system. $8 prepaid? In what country?

 

The US. Never heard of windows 10 mobile? Runs well on my lumia smartphone, which can do 95% what the newest iPhone can do (if you don't game) for 1/20 of the price. As for, my phone plan, I am not going to advertise but look at http://www.howardforums.com if you want to lower your cell phone bill.

 

What are your favorite apps?
Charging for downloads? Number or size?
I remember when we had minutes and individual text charges...
What did you have prior to your Galaxy?

 

$8 prepaid, what provider? What services?

 

Have you heard of Google?

 

Some more than others

 

Yeah. What does Google have to do with Bangladesh cell service?

 

You could use it to find the answer yourself. That is what it is there for.