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Comment by seldo | Hacker News Reader

The concept of a "primary" smartphone is a little strange to me. How common is it to have multiple active smartphones? (As opposed to, say, one for testing software, or an old one in the closet)

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The common scenario I see here in Asia is a corporate provided phone (free business calls and the only sanctioned way to access corporate email, but invariably crappy, old, cheap and/or blackberry) plus a new smartphone (Samsung in ASEAN, iPhone in greater China) used for friends, family, apps etc. Very rare to encounter someone in a business meeting who does not have two phones.

I think it's not too uncommon -- I carry an iPhone 5s and Nexus 5 (in the same pocket), and I see a lot of other people do it too.

I do it because:

a.) iPhone OS is better but overall, but the tiny screen is super super annoying for many things (IMO)

b.) this way I have NTT Docomo in addition to Softbank, so I get coverage underground and weird places where one or the other doesn't work

c.) voice dictation is 100x better on Android, so I use the nexus for dictating things

Agreed. Although while travelling I frequently find people who have 2 smartphones. Usually because the main one is carrier locked but also, I guess, as an anti-theft solution.

I have carried a 2nd "development" phone for more than 5 years. Currently an S3.

Not only provides sandbox to play in, it has twice provided an acceptable backup during repairs to primary with only a simcard swap.

I'm using Openmoko Neo Freerunner, but often also carry Nokia N900, which is nicer for web browsing and writing thanks to hw keyboard. I'm looking forward to replace them both with Neo900.

I'd say at least half the people I know have two phones, one for work, one for personal use.

That's what I thought too, right after "Insert Dave Morin joke."

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