Ideas & Opinions
How many phones do you carry?
By Mike on 16 September 2009
GLOBAL – It’s funny, this sounds like a somewhat outdated question from a bygone era of mobility where one pocket was reserved for the work phone and one for your personal device. Not so, as Gary H highlights in our recent story Excitement at reading the tea leaves, resurfacing the question with his comment declaring that he carries multiple devices: “Well how’s this – how many people carry 2 phones now. I’m using 3!”
Later this week we’ll be running a piece asking you what makes a good enterprise device, but in the meantime, we’re interested to kick-start a conversation around this topic of carrying multiple devices, discussing why we do, and if it’ll ever truly become a thing of the past.
Cast your vote today, and if you carry more than one device, please share the reasons why you do in the comments section further down.
Related posts:
- How many phones do you carry? The results are in!
- You say business phones need long haul batteries… but do all phones?
- Comment of the week – Nokia dual SIM phone debate sparked
Tags | poll
September 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Why don’t you guys plan for dual sim phones ?
Sriram
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi,
I carry two mobiles, because i have to travel between two states in India for work days and week ends. Being a fan of Nokia I dont want to carry any other phones apart from Nokia. Unfortunately we dont have a phone with dual SIM. But thanks to Nokia if i carry one single phone its equivalent to carry one game station, one MP3 Player and a digital/handy cam(One Navigator though i m not using Maps much) etc on pocket too handy …. Nice, but people like me willing to have a dual SIM Nokia Phone.
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margie Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:56 am
i have a nokia dual sim phone , touch screen … it came from Iraq.
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bryan Reply:
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 pm
there is no such thing, margie. What you have is an immitation nokia phone, i.e. Fake.
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Margie Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Well, It looks like the real deal and works great!
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I want nokia to built a dual SIM phone!!! Please, I’m tired of carring two phones around.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:34 am
I am carrying two phones (both Nokia) because of a couple of reasons. One of the phones has a pre-paid sim card and the other has a pay per use sim card and they belong to different operators.
In my country (Turkey), interopreator calling rates are extremely high and carrying two phones allows me to communicate with the least cost.
Moreover, I am allocating one of the phones for work and I do not give away the phone number of the other phone so that I can easily distinguish between personal and work related calls. If necessary, I can turn off the work phone and I can still communicate with my personal contacts.
You may also ask if call forwarding is an alternative option, but when you forward calls, you cannot receive S(M)MS.
It is not convenient to carry two phones around all the time. For this reason, in Turkey, the sales of chinese branded low quality dual sim phones are increasing with a high rate, even though they are inferior in many ways. (One of my friends is carrying two phones and one of them is a dual sim phone, totaling to three different sim cards from three different operators!)
For years, I longed for a Symbian dual sim phone and Samsung tried to enter this market with a couple of models but it gave up soon. If you check the cellphone market, except these few models, none of the large players (Nokia, Apple, RIM, SE, Motorola) has a dual sim phone. – Not even a single model. This may be a marketing decision to ensure higher sales, but I don’t think it is working effectively.
I did not buy a new phone for my second sim card. I simply started using my previous phone instead of buying a totally new one. Even if I was to purchase a new phone, I would only buy an entry level phone (I already have a smartphone) and the additional sales effect would be limited.
And if you are buying a new phone to carry two phones, it creates an unnecessary waste of resources, besides inconvenience. A dual sim phone would have done the same job with less harm to the nature and with less cost. I am using my smartphone for everything and the only thing I do with my second phone besides calling is messaging. Its web browser and music player is completely useless for me.
But I am forced to use two different operators and I cannot give up carrying two phones.
Also, a final disadvantage of carrying multiple phones is the regular need for syncing contacts between phones.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I carry 2 Nokia mobile. Nokia E71 which fulfills all my office needs and Nokia N86 for Entertainment(Camera main and music)
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Just one. A Nokia N97. And it’s got all that i need.
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I carry 2 phones; my work phone (E61 with my work number) and my personal phone (N82) with one of my 2 personal numbers.
although I have 3 sim cards i don’t own another phone because of the extra (let’s say) bulk and because of having to worry about yet another device. Anything more thane 2 is overkill for me… My ideal solution would be a single sim Nseries coupled with a dualsim Eseries… Hope you guys do something to satisfy clients like me too (keeping in mind that you already have devices that are considered being for “niche” markets)
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September 16th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
aHa,I have only one,the Nokia N79.
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September 16th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I got several!! N900, N97 Mini, X6, E72, Nokia Erdo, Nokia Twists! hahaha kidding! c”,
got my one and only Nokia N82 which i in-dire like to upgrade with N86! soon to have two phones with the 5530 XpressMusic upcoming?
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September 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I carry two phones. One is personal and the other is official as my company does not allow us to use personal for company business.
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September 16th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
i will use two phones (both Nokia) one for official work and the other only to talk vth my family alone.
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September 16th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I carry 3 phones most of the time but sometimes more. A dual sim phone by Nokia would make international travel so much easier
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Carry an E90, E71 and an N97.
In NZ, it is expensive to call between carriers. So 2 phones are on the 2 largest carriers here. The third is on a prepay sim with a budget carrier.
The E90 and N97 get most of the heavy lifting. The N97 is my primary device. The E90 is starting to feel its age now though, so the E71 is progressively taking over.
Have to agree with others, multi-sim phones would make life a lot easier. Especially if they had two radios and could use both sims simultaneously.
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September 17th, 2009 at 3:59 am
I am a one device kind of girl. I carry a small purse and I want one phone with a great camera, an internet connection, and if it must ring then so be it, doesn’t mean I have to answer.
Truly, when I had a digital camera and a mobile phone (pre-Dec. 2004), the phone lived under the seat in my car and the camera in my purse. With the advent of the truly great Nokia 7610, the phone lived in my purse & around my wrist and the digital camera lived(s) in a drawer at home.
I am a big photowalker and I want one small device that I can take photos with that will send them out to my blog. I have been testing a Nikon DSLR recently, and while the camera is amazing, it is too big for my purse and too conspicuous to take out everywhere I go.
Viva la the Nokia n8x line (N80, N82, N86)!
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September 17th, 2009 at 5:47 am
I carry two mobiles for simple reason that I had my first number spread amongst my contacts. The service provider of the first number has expensive GPRS package and I opted for a new service provider retaining the old one. Also there are minor advantages as well. In remote places where one mobile operator signal is not present is being compensated by the other phone. Also, I can now choose not charge the battery until the battery is completely discharged, which I belive elongates the battery life.
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September 17th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I carry 2 Nokia devices, E90 for business use, and N97 mainly for multimedia purposes: Especially video capturing:
any plan for Nokia dual sim and what about concept phone E97 !!!
Cheers:
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September 17th, 2009 at 10:23 am
hi. nokia really need to make dual sim card phone. i’m now using 3 phones just because i can save more money by using 3 operator. the on-net price call is incredably cheap here where the off-net price is incredably high. furthermore, when i travel abroad, i would like to use local sim card. i.e. when i travel to singapore i would buy singapore sim card instead of using my indonesia card. because roaming is so expensive. if nokia can support dual card, then i don’t need to bring extra phone for reading if someone have sms to my indonesian number or not.
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September 17th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Nokia should start making dual slim phone’s its a hassle to carry three or two phones at a time leave alone four as mentioned in the poll.
I use three phones.
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September 17th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
It’s not only business/personal and/or network reasons for multiple phones, but the devices themselves. Nokia makes no one single complete best phone. I think there’s a market for companion phones. Devices that compliment each other for a more complete experience.
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September 17th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Well, at the moment i carry 2 phones, but normally it is 3…
I’ll explain:
I carry a Nokia 1600i (company’s phone) exclusively for work calls, and normally i also carry my (ex) Nokia E65 for entertainement, and another Nokia 1600i to work with. Working on the railroad can be dangerous for my (ex) Nokia E65, so the 1600i is a good solution for those times i just have to pick calls.
The E65 is more just for web browsing, games and some other stuff, but unfortunately i got stolen a few months ago, and the E65 is by now long gone.. (I’m expecting my insurance to give me another, but burocracy is taking too many time).
[rant -on]
With this said, i think the main idea that we can take from all these comments is that Nokia should really begin to build dual-sim phones (or tri-sim, that would be funny).
[/rant -off]
About Marcelo, that’s a good way of facing the facts: You’re completely geek, but… so are we!
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bungkus Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
hi, a relative of mine own some china brand triple card. she used 4 provider. 1 with her n81 8gb the other 3 with the triple card china phone.
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Nuno Pereira Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 9:08 am
(how outdated am i?) XD
It’s really fun to see how we are surprised every day by new technology, and this is one more of them! I know dual-sim phones for a while, but i’ve never heard about triple-sim… This just proves my point: Despite Chinese phones quality, they know what users want, and Nokia should really try to learn something with them.
(and the world keeps spinning)
Thank you bungkus for the information! (i’ll try to digg a bit more on it thru google
)
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September 17th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I think I prefer seperate phones to a single phone that takes multiple sims. Many sim only deals are dependent on having a spare phone. In my circle of family and friends, the phones get recycled and passed around to those less technical.
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September 18th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Just one phone and sometimes it’s too much for me:)
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September 20th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I use one phone. E51. It’ll be just too much of weight to carry another one. Though that limits me to using network of only one service provider.
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September 20th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Hi, I am using 2 at current. Nokia N81 for my office contacts which I turn off on weekoff so tht my offs dont get mess up. Use Omnia 8900 for personal use & for web browsing. Planning to buy iphone3gs.
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September 21st, 2009 at 8:20 am
I have two Mobile Numbers..
I was fed up with carrying 2 phones with me so I bought a Chinese phone that has dual simms. Both simms are active, meaning that if a call comes in on either, I can answer it. You have a choice of which simm to call out on so whichever has the strongest signal, I use.
In reality, the phone quality is the pits… It has to be continually re-booted. Sometimes it decides that I can not make a call out on one of the simms, but I can recieve calls on it.
I have now reluctantly gone back to using two phones..
If Nokia came out with a Dual Simm phone and it was reliable.. I WOULD BUY IT
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September 21st, 2009 at 10:33 am
At the moment I carry 2,sometimes 3.I would love to see dual SIM card phones made by Nokia/hopefully high end eg.N900,N97/It makes it much easier when you travel often abroad and use local SIM,or as other people mentioned above,when prices to call other networks are too high
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September 21st, 2009 at 10:39 am
Interesting question. I carry 3+1 phones:
1) iPhone — for fun, conferencing and phone calls. The best content reader and conference phone!
2) Blackberry — for email (only) — a superb mailbox on the road. Fast, streamlined, lean.
3) Nokia E71 — currently only works as a HSPA modem for laptop with foreign SIM cards. I simply don’t like to use it: Symbian is so…o complex and slow to use that I always get frustrated after a couple of minutes. DO SOMETHING WITH THE SYMBIAN, quick. As a Nokia-lover, I hate the fact that I cannot use Nokia phones due to the poor usage experience.
4) 3D datacard. Used only when the E71 doesn’t work. Auxiliary device
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September 21st, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I carry two mobile phones, two great smartphones I might add, actually I have been using the Nokia N82 and the Nokia N97, the N82 because I love the camera and simply because I love it and the firmware its very mature now, and the N97 because… well, IT’S AN N97!
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September 22nd, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Currently carrying three phones, E71 (work), K750i (camera and personal, and flashlight!) and iPhone … plus a 3G data stick for the laptop.
The K750 is back because the 5630 I had ended up with a broken screen so I have had to drop back to an older phone. And the camera in the SE K750i is great, and you can use the camera “flash” LEDs as a flashlight, wonderful stuff.
The E71 is the work phone, but at £1/Mb, can’t really use it for web surfing.
The iPhone is for websurfing, google maps, plus games/apps. On PAYG with a £10/month unlimited Web’n'Wifi bolt-on.
The 3G data stick is because the 3 Network offers a monthly 15Gb for £15 and I do a lot of tethered personal web work with the laptop.
Ideally I’d like one phone that could do all that with one contract that could let me do all that affordably. … one day!
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September 22nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm
hi again, i just wanna to tell you the 3 sim card 3 on phone is VERY BIG. it’s around the size of nokia E90. because it have a nuclear power plant (the batery is so big because it need to power 3 sim card). the size of the batery is about twice nokia bp6 1500ah batery. and it really lookks as ugly as it could be. (joke)the only function it’s missing is the epabx softtware. (/joke)
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September 22nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
i carry two phones, one for work and one for private use, both nokia, along with a wallet, coins and two set of keys. if nokia do not consider marketing a dual sim phone, then cannot consider themselves a company who listen to there customers. Also if they do not consider a dual sim phone necessary, will they start producing a Man Bag as an accessory with a dual phone holders?
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September 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
can anyone help me please? do all nokia n97’s come as Dual SIM? thanks
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bungkus Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
nokia have no dual sim product. all dual sim nokia is a FAKE. a made in china fake that sold for usd 60-90 in china.
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September 23rd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
I carry two phones as well. N96 and N97. Basically because i operate two sim cards. I mainly use the N97 tho…
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September 26th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I also have multiple phones. I have a work E Series, and two simple Nokia’s. Also have 4 sim cards. Travel btn Germany (Base where the E is registered) Greece, Turkey and Israel requires multiple cards to keep both my customers and my cost down. Also, besides my Company phone to call, my customers in each country enjoy the fact that I have a “local” sim card/phone number for them to call and don’t have to pay international rates to reach me. I would definitely stand in line for a dual sim card phone from Nokia. Nokia, listen to your customer base!
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September 28th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
In Serbia majority of people carry 2 mobile phones for 2 reasons:
1. one for business (company provided) and one for private number
2. there are 3 mobile operators that give lower costs for calling in home network, so many people carry up to 3 simcards, dependant on numbers they want to call
Please build dual sim touchscreen!
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September 28th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I like nokia phones, they are great, but I’m really tired of carring two phones (both nokia personnal and business) you should really built a dual SIM phone for all your series and models especially the E-Series. So Please Nokia built for me and for all those who are tired of carring two phones a dual sim phones. PLEASE.
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October 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
i want nokia dual sim
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Raj Devinder Singh Gill Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
i want nokia dual sim i am nokia fan becaus i am useing only nokia
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October 14th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I carry 2 phones. One is motorolla and the other is Nokia E90.
I would love to have a dual sim phone from Nokia so that I wouldn need to carry 2. Hope they would introduce one soon.
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October 16th, 2009 at 8:11 am
there can be only one! E52
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October 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
I’m a nokia user for a long time, I’m using 2 phones but if nokia will make a phone with 2 sim card for 2 phone provider I will appreciate it very much
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October 25th, 2009 at 12:44 am
I have been using nokia phones for about 10 years and they are the only mobile phone product I like. The ease of use and functionality are far superior to any other product.
Recently, I have been forced to carry two phones, both nokia, one company and the personal phone I already had.
I absolutely despise having to carry two phones – particularly when I didn’t get my choice of company phone and it isn’t a model I would have chosen.
Because my favourite phone company, nokia, did not produce a dual sim phone to meet my requirements as a customer I have purchased a cheap dual sim phone from China so I don’t have to carry two phones around. I absolutely hate the phone from China, it works which is great but it does not have the same functionality and ease of use a nokia phone would provide.
I am BEGGING you nokia, please bring out a fantastic dual sim phone VERY SOON!
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November 12th, 2009 at 11:17 am
I have two phones problem in carry what i do reply ????????????????
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November 12th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I am having 4 phones,but if dual sim mobiles com frm nokia surely i will take only 2 sim numbers.Pls NOKIA think of Dual sim mobiles.W r Begging.Pls
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November 14th, 2009 at 6:42 am
I carry 3 mobiles, one iMate provided by office and two personal phones one with local UAE operator and other Indian Sim card on roaming.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I have Nokia with 3 sim card, and tv works very good
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December 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 am
I carry two, N73, and E51. I travel internationally so one gets a local SIM and the other keeps my home country SIM (one of them). I could do with carrying two or three more, but carrying two is bad enough!
A dual- or better tripple-SIM phone would be a great help. I used to use a SIM switcher in an old Nokia phone but only one SIM was active at a time which saved ripping the back off and the battery out all the time, but I still needed to switch off, switch the active SIM, and then switch on again.
In a multi-SIM phone all SIMs need to be available to make or receive calls, but with a simple method of deactivating any of them through the user interface (to prevent messages on an expensive roaming SIM, etc)
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December 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
When will the Dual SIM phones be deployed in South Africa?
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December 27th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
please nokia make dual sim card phone as soon as possible i m on oxgyen
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January 9th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I am carry two mobile and i am waiting nokia dual sim mob if that will come within this month i will buy that other wise i will buy Samsung dual sim coz i am carry two different sim that is my personal sim and coz one sim is outgoing calls are cheaper and other sim is incoming call signal is very good.
Thx
Bajaj
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January 14th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
plz plz plz………..
im a great fan of nokia
n now im in great need for a nokia dual sim mobile
i will appreciate if it is in S60 series!!!!!!!!
plz launch it at ur earliest~~~~~~~~~~~
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January 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Have just bought a new Nokia 6303, I have to say I think Nokia have LOST the plot. I bought an e351 last year, after having had a 6300 for ages. The software is rubbish and the phone not much better. Spent the best bart of GB£200= and ended up with a sadly lacking product. Sony and Samsung, onwards and upwards
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January 23rd, 2010 at 9:50 am
I carry two phones. A Nokia E71 which fulfills all my office needs and a Dual SIM Samsung SGH D780 to enable me save on cost of calling acrooss networks since i manage a sales force.
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January 29th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Well I have 3 Different Mobile Carriers. One is a Vodafone, other is an Airtel and an Idea Postpaid. Since My Vodafone & Idea numbers are similar with the difference of just 98 & 99 I use both of them as my work numbers. One is out for all the patients and the other is restricted to my collegues, other doctors and select clients. Apart from this I carry a personal number from Airtel. For all, I carry 3 mobiles with me all the times. Two of them are Nokia (5300 & 5800) and the other is Sony Ericsson (That’s a gift from my wife else it would have been a Nokia too). The N5800 is which I use for all of my connectivity requirements as Mails, Meetings, Patient Appointments, Medical Journals, Internet over Wi-Fi etc. Also it serves as my Navigator and City Guide when I am travelling. The other, N5300 is most of the time with my secreatry attending to patient calls and alloting appointments. The Sony is meant exclusively to talk to my wife, parents and son. Now, if nokia could have come up with a dual SIM phone I would have ended carrying one phone less with me. The clutter of carrying 3 phones at a given time as more often perceived as a flambouyant effect. The big nuicances are Charging 3 different phones, syncronising contact lists/ appointments/ meetings, using different PC Suites, managing with different connectivity cables and a whole lot of other pains. Thankfully my secreatory takes care of this mess at office and my wife at home. But if Nokia would have come up with a Dual or possibly triple SIM phone, I am sure to assume it to be a heaven’s blessing. It does make your life a lot detangled and stuffs are easily manageable. Though there are many cheap, dual SIM chinese handsets in the market but that’s just a chinese electronic junk dumped in Indian market assuming Indians to be ragpicking their useless debris for a cheaper price.
By introducing Dual SIM phones I am sure Nokai would surely set a benchmark in a more green globe as people would end up with one handset insted of two. Thus resulting in lesser pollution and lesser resource consumption from manufacturing, to transporation, packaging (using less paper for Boxes, user manuels, warrenty card etc.) and less elctronic waste after a phone reaches end of life. It’s simple – Just add double SIM capablity and then cut everthing to almost half. My mantra says that Double SIM phone will lead to more green & clean environment and users will love the new level of added manageablity too.
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February 5th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I carry two phones. Both Nokia (6310i and 6233). Nokia, please prepare for all of us a 2-SIM-phone! Please as soon as possible. Thank you.
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February 6th, 2010 at 6:20 am
I’m carrying 2 phone’s here in Bangladesh. One is for personal use. And another is official use. I can not avoid using the personal one cause most of my personal and unofficial contacts having this number from the very beginning. And my official number changes along with my job/Dept. changes.
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