If Smartphones Didn't Exist, Which Gadgets Would You Buy?

It's common knowledge that the smartphone has replaced a whole bunch of gadgets. It's easy to look at the shrinking number of people who use standalone point-and-shoot cameras anymore and see the impact of smartphones. But there are several other technologies that were around just over 30 years ago, which have people have almost forgotten all about.

WebpageFX has a nice infographic that shows this change. But if having a smartphone means not having to deal with a dozen different devices, then the other thing it does is save you a lot of money. Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get all the functions of your phone, if there were no smartphones? We found out.

1. Watch
For many, the smartphone has replaced a watch. There are still plenty of people who like watches, but without smartphones you'd probably still find people with hideous monstrosities like the calculator watch. That costs around Rs. 2,000 if you get a Casio, while other generic brands offer the same product for less than Rs. 300, while high-end watches practically don't have an upper limit to the price.

2. Fax machine
Between the telegram and text messages, there existed a technology called fax. Though we couldn't find many standalone fax machines, you can still buy a multi-function printer with fax capabilities at around Rs. 8,000, with more expensive and some more affordable options as well. Tough luck if you want to send a gif or animated emoji, both of which hit peak popularity thanks to the chat app boom on smartphones. Unlike watches, it's harder to justify buying a new fax machine, since most communication that we know of has all but switched to email? Are some businesses still using fax? Let us know via the comments.

3. Phone
The obvious one. If not for the smartphone, you'd still be sending each other picture messages on your basic feature phone. Calling would still be easy and Nokia probably would still be the world's biggest mobile phone company. The price of phones would probably be at par with current market rates for feature phones, so around Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000.

4. GPS devices
Satellite-assisted navigation was around before smartphones and these devices are still around after smartphones. You can still buy yourself a navigator from MapMyIndia or its competitors at around Rs. 8,000. The advantage is that with these dedicated devices, you're not worried about the battery running low or getting a call while trying to drive, so they still make sense. However, at least in India, these units typically don't have real time traffic information and updating them can be a task.

5. Voice recorder
Remember voice recorders? We don't either. They're still available starting at just Rs. 800. We don't know about you, but these would be absolutely vital to us journalists and if not for our smartphones, this is what you'd see us carrying around. In fact, quite a few people still keep a separate voice recorder even if they have a phone, simply because it's better to have a backup, voice recorders can come with specialised mikes, and have batteries that let you record nonstop for a couple of hours.

6. Music player/ Radio
Without smartphones we can think of only one way to satisfy our craving for music - portable music players. This one from Transcend costs Rs. 2,000 and comes with support for FM radio and plays mp3 files. It can even double up as a voice recorder if you want. What more could one ask for?

7. Camera
Smartphones are eroding camera ownership, particularly at the entry level, but the kind of cameras available wouldn't be very different in a world without smartphones. You can buy nice point-and-shoot cameras from the likes of Sony at around Rs. 6,500. For professionals, DSLRs would still rule the roost, just as they do now.

8. Video player
Would people buy more discs if not for smartphones? It's a tough question. The world would probably have more Blu-Ray players that cost around Rs. 6,000. But we might just have started buying more HDMI cables and plugged in our laptops or PCs to the TV to watch our favourite movies and TV shows. Or maybe devices like Apple TV and Chromecast would've been even more popular.

9. Gaming console
A world without smartphones would be a world without Pokemon Go. But gaming consoles would still be around and we'd probably still have Microsoft and Sony's consoles ruling the roost.

10. PCs and laptops
Another change that smartphones have enabled is allowing a lot of people to live without a PC. Small-screen smartphones have almost disappeared and many people get all of their work done on their phones. If there were no smartphones, there would be an abundance of desktops and laptops. You'd be looking at an expenditure of at least Rs. 20,000 for a basic laptop, and around twice that for anything decent.

By now we're used to getting operating systems for free thanks to both Android and iOS being available as free downloads. If not for them, most of us would be buying a copy of Windows.

Not taking into account the price of a gaming console, getting all of this gear together would conservatively cost us around Rs. 55,000 - so the next time you look at your phone and wonder why it costs so much, think about how much money it's saving for you.

Which gadgets would you buy if smartphones didn't exist? Let us know via the comments.