THE Lowly Peon

On iPhones, Materialism, and Frugality 
26 June 2010, 1:39am

So a Scot, a geek, a nuclear physicist and his wife walk into a bar. The wife says to the geek, nice to meet you, I hear you're very frugal. The geek, of course, replies with something witty and brilliant that can't be posted online.

Apparently in the last few months, I've gotten the reputation among several of my colleagues that I'm frugal. I suppose this comes from a misunderstanding of why I refuse to take taxis, pay $10 for a pizza that tastes bad or $50 for a buffet that serves what I already have in my apartment, or why the first thing i do in the morning is go buy an egg pancake for a whopping $0.36813. Anyone reading this blog — all two of you — know that frugal may not be the best word with which to describe me.

Case and point: I have purchased a new iPhone with each release — including two first generation phones, once they doubled the capacity — and for the last two years, each one has been at the absurdly high unsubsidized price because it's unsafe to manually jailbreak and unlock the phone (or perhaps just because I don't want to wait a few extra days to upgrade to new OSes until the jailbreaking tools are available — it's a real mystery). In three years, I've owned seven iPhones (all but two, the beerPhone and daisy's birthday iPhone, I've sold the day I bought a new one).

Meanwhile, I'm afraid that I'm being too materialistic. I go back and forth about this one regarding my iPhone — I think it's fairly obvious that I appreciate and use to the fullest my iPhones and other technology, yet I also know sometimes that I'm at least a little addicted to it. Is a monk who cares for his robe and bowl materialistic? (answer: if he pays $800 every couple of months just to get the newest shiniest one, then yeah, probably not the greatest monk.)

So the problem at hand. I really want a new iPhone 4. I've been lusting after one ever since Gizmodo posted their $5000 illegally obtained photographs a few months back. In all honesty, and not just to defend my yearning, I think this is the biggest step from one iphone model to another since the Steve pulled the first one out of his pocket in 2007. With a completely overhauled design, a camera that puts my Sony Cybershot to shame, and an antenna that requires you to stand on one foot, run your belly and pat your head at the same time, it's hard not to see the upgrade.

I decided on a run the other day that I'm too materialistic and have too much stuff. I felt like I was living a life of excess. I have too much stuff, I eat too much, I drink too much, too much, too much. I still think so, and I feel like I've improved quite a bit since then, but I wonder now where to draw the line.

My iPhone 3GS is an incredible device. It's fast, has 32gb of storage, runs perfectly on iOS 4, and is in perfect condition. So what would be the harm in keeping it on hand in case mine or daisy's iPhone gets stolen? Or if we move to the states, decide to sell our souls to AT&T to save a few hundred dollars, and need an unlocked iPhone to use while traveling abroad? The 3GS may not run on iOS5, and it may seem slow as a snail a few years from now, but surely it won't be useless. And I have had it for almost a year, and no one can doubt that I've gotten good use out of it.

My mind may change. I may live up to my colleague's wife's expectations and decide for once to be frugal even if it hurts. But for now, I think I'm going to get an iPhone 4 once they go on sale, unlocked, in HK next month.