I don’t think apps encourage impulse spending, rather take advantage of the people prone to the habit.

When I was younger, I was a broke design major and had plenty of friends eager to “help” me get the expensive software suites I needed to finish my classwork. On a smaller scale, I often used “nagware” shareware for years without paying or even contributing. Now I’m a happy geek working in adult media and know exactly what this “why should I pay?” mentality does to my friends’ livelihoods.

If I like it, if I use it, if it fills a need or a strong want, I buy it – because I can now, and I know a lot of others won’t bother to. Buying mindlessly isn’t at all fulfilling. Buying mindfully after considering the purchase is.

Also: while unplugging is fun and necessary from time to time, I’ve found my smartphone indispensable while traveling in both semi-rural and urban areas. The only downside is that I don’t write as often, because I’m always putting information in, not out.

Husband and I also made a decision to bypass iPhone, just sticking to a simple cell. We text a bit, chat a bit, and that’s really all we need.

I am one of those people who really enjoys getting away and unplugging. We head out rafting, driftboating, camping, etc. for 5-6 days without any tech toys or e-life at all, and it makes me feel FANTASTIC! We both return home feeling recharged, energized, reconnected to our natural world and filled with inspiration and creativity.

I’m not a luddite by any means, but staying connected usually results in time suck for me. Unplugging is salve for my soul and mind, not to mention kinder and gentler for my bank account. And I’m not putting my independent book store owner friends out of work with a Kindle anytime soon either!

I’ve never owned an iphone or any of those other things like Blackberries and the like, and I seem to be getting along just fine

I can practice delayed gratification this way, get all the apps I desire and say “no” to some that were really only passing fancies.

A great site is freeappaday.com (not affiliated with them), which showcases apps that have recently become free. Every weekend they showcase a particularly popular or worthwhile app, usually a game.

As far as unplugging, the NY Times did a great piece on this a few months ago (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/the-unplugged-challenge-readers-respond/). Turns out, just like a three-day weekend can make us more relaxed, a three-day hiatus from the Hulu can keep us more sane, too.

Apps are great (I happen to be biased based on where I work), but they can certainly chip away at your 401(k) if you let them.

Great post!

In your comment, you said,

“Why not create apps for a side income? Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income has done this to add to his income. You don’t need programming skills (you can outsource this). ”

This really supports my point about some of the most troublesome apps are ones that people just created to have their name on the app store (or to create “side income”). Build an app to solve a problem, or to help others, not to make extra money…you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you start of that way. I’m sure J.D. didn’t start GRS just to make extra money (although that was probably a consideration).

Second point–about outsourcing app building. While a lot of companies do this, (hence why I have a profitable business!), it is NOT NOT NOT cheap. I had an overwhelming work load and looked to outsource some of my easier apps–I would say there is no way you can build a reasonably good app that will be accepted to the Apple store right away for less than $7,000 total. That’s really difficult to recoup on ad revenue and/or a profit of .79 per app (that’s assuming you charge over a dollar per app).

Anyway, just my two cents.

That said, I don’t have a smartphone and really don’t have a desire for one. Or more accurately, I have no desire to pay the monthly charge to have internet and whatnot on my phone. Someday, if they consider internet access to be standard and it’s all rolled into a regular service charge then I would consider a smartphone. But right now, I’m good. I talk and I text, not much though, and that’s enough for me. I would rather watch a movie on my TV at home rather than a tiny screen and I manager to entertain myself just fine if I’m in line or waiting at the doctor’s office. I don’t feel the need to download music or look things up online out of boredom. I also do not have a job that I need to bring work home for and if I did, then I would expect them to pony up for the phone service if they expect me to answer email at all hours of the night and day.

*shrug* I’m not anti-smartphone, I’m just ambivalent about it.

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps

How much has he spent? Not a single cent! All the apps were free and all his music was copied from his collection of CDs that he has obtained over many years.

All small things, I know, and there are other devices that could serve those functions. But you get used to having all those niceties at your fingertips 24/7. All tech is like that. My life would be drastically different without online banking, telephones instead of snail mail, and cars instead of horses. I think it is naive when people say “You got by fine without it before, you don’t need it now.” Take that to its logical conclusion. We got by without running water and flush toilets, and we wouldn’t die without them now, but most people are still happy to pay for the convenience. The same is true with smart phones.

Lot’s of people make good money making apps and selling them for a dollar, if you can get a million people to buy it, then boom!

#6 also mentioned doing the shopping on your PC through iTunes (or app Brain for us android users). That is doing something similar and it’s very smart.

BTW, android has outsold iPhones for six months in a row, lets try to talk about smart phones as a whole. If you say iPhones and android, you are going to upset webOS, blackberry, and windows mobile users. All smart phones have this same problem.