[General Questions and Answers] Pennycake:
It's up to you.

Personally, I've found plenty of times it's much easier to do something internet-related on my phone rather than get out or bring my big, heavy laptop. I used to do that. Get lost, need directions, et cetera ? That meant pulling over to somewhere with free WIFI. Having a smartphone means you just need to pull over anywhere - or use voice commands/have a passenger do it/just be unsafe/et cetera.

I used to have a point-and-shoot camera and the only time I've used it since getting my new phone with a decent camera is to take a picture of the phone itself. Why carry around a bunch of stuff when one small object can do it all ?

With my smartphone I hardly ever text any more since I can use data IM services. Not really essential, but it gives you options. I also find typing on the touchscreen to be faster and easier thanks to Swiftkey 3. I had phones with a physical keyboard before and I don't miss it.

If you are getting a carrier upgrade or considering buying through eBay or the like, I think a good question is "why not" ? You can get a good enough smartphone for pretty cheap and get a feel for it.

One thing I love is things like Astrid tasks - I can have it instead of a grocery list, et cetera - I won't lose it because my phone is something I always check to have with me instead of a piece of paper. I can carry it while getting groceries unlike a whole laptop or even computer. It's also incredibly easy to take notes at times when getting a whole laptop out would be ridiculous. You can make notes of things to remember and add calendar events that sync to your desktop/laptop. I have my phone syncing to three other devices so that just like not having to carry an extra camera, I don't have to manually transfer everything on physical media.

Sure, I don't NEED to play mobile games, but... why not ? Even my mom likes Android gaming. My phone plan is LESS than my talk + text plan was with Sprint, it's not like I'm paying extra for this. I keep a book or two on my phone because why not, it comes in handy when needed and it doesn't cost me anything. I watched a bit of a show on Netflix while waiting for a friend - so much faster and easier than setting up a whole laptop in my car and trying to get a WIFI signal strong enough. I'm so pleased that I'm paying less money and getting so much more - my last phone couldn't even go on-line, let alone stream HD video over 4g.

I like being able to search for answers to "when is Sears open until" or "nearest liquor store" or "I haven't seen a road I recognise for ten miles" - and be able to get directions. Yeah, it's silly, but it's pretty great. I had to drive once to a friend's parents' house - somewhere I'd never been. Instead of getting arduous turn-by-turn directions, I could just get the street address and Google Maps lead me there without needing to keep my friend on the phone while driving. My friends and I routinely use the navigation since even if you know where point B is, you might not immediately know the best way to get there from point A - saves gas and time.

I would disagree that you don't need it for app making. Not technically, no - but how can you really be a good app-maker if you don't understand the user and what the user wants ? You can read about it, sure - but you're not going to have the best tools to be creative and innovate unless you have it in your hands and understand the unique challenges and logistics that come with actually using a smartphone. It's like if doctors only read books and never interacted with sick people under instruction before being "on the job" for real. You learn so much by having hands-on experience that might be easy to overlook or not consider otherwise.

My dad had a flip-phone until recently. He asked the same question, "why" ? Now he wonders why he ever said "no". Yeah, he has a laptop required for work and a lot of other things, but it's just the little things that it adds - the options, getting rid of extra gadgets, making life a little bit easier when you'd have been paying for the phone service anyway - why not ?

Could I get by without it ? Definitely. But why would I give it up when it's actually saving me money ?