My iPhone has saved me money?

I’ve calculated that my life is 50% simpler because I own a smartphone. blog.mindrocketnow.com

So I’m one of the people that cannot leave their smartphone alone for more than 6.5 minutes. However, rather than feeling guilty, I think this is a sign of my savvy consumer insight. I did some rough accounting, and using my smartphone has saved me money:

Gadget	Incremental cost on iPhone	Non-iPhone equivalent	Cost of equivalent
Address book	£0 Contacts app	Collins A5	£9.99
Alarm clock	Free app	Casio TQ140	£4.75
Album	£9.99/m Spotify premium	Amazon CD	£4.99 ea.
Babysitting	£4.99 Minecraft app	Local teenager	£8/h
Bike computer	£0 Runkeeper app	Velo Champion 16	£24.99
Boarding pass	£0 Passbook app	Printed at airport	£0
Book	£4.99 Kindle book ea.	Amazon paperback	£5.99 ea.
Calculator	£0 Calculator app	Casio FX-83GT	£11.99
Calendar	£0 Calendar app	Filofax	£7.50
Camera	£0 Camera app	Nikon Coolpix L31	£58
Comic	$69 p.a. Marvel Unlimited	Comic book store comic	£3.99 ea.
Digital music player	£0 Music app	Sony Walkman NWZE585	£84.99
Game	Marvel Puzzle Quest £14.99 in-app purchase	Lego Marvel Avengers for Wii U	£30.99
International call	£0 over wi-fi	BT standard tariff to India	40p/min
Map	£0 Google maps	AtoZ London	£5.99
Movie	£0 Amazon Fire TV app	Amazon blu-ray	£10.99 ea.
Newspaper	£0 Feedly app	The Times	£1.20/d
Radio	£0 Podcasts app	Roberts Radio Revival Mini	£160
Sat nav	£0 Waze app	TomTom Start 25M UK maps	£119.99
Telephone	£28.32/m tariff + £480 for the phone	Line rental + BT 1000 DECT phone	£16.70/m + £19.99
TV box set	£0 Now TV app	Additional NowTV box + subs	£10 + £6.99/m
Weather forecast	£0 Yahoo! Weather app	Watson W8682-mkII	£59.95
Annual Total	£1064.58		£2264.22

Yikes! My gadget habit costs me over a grand per year. At least it’s 50% cheaper using my iPhone than with replacements.

Some of my favourite activities turn out to be free activities that I find better to do on my smartphone; activities like browsing, checking email, or borrowing books from the library. Others are activities that would cost real money in meatspace, are now free using an app, like a second screen movie viewing vs. buying a blu-ray.

Very rarely is there an activity that is cheaper in meatspace than online. The only example I can think of is buying digital media. It’s still cheaper to by real CDs and books, and movies than downloading, unless you buy a subscription.

What I find most interesting about this list, is that there are over 20 activities that I now do with this single device, that I would find valuable enough to pay for. In other words, if I didn’t have my smartphone, I would’ve happily bought a bevvy of additional gadgets. My smartphone is revolutionary because it simplifies my life.