For the past few years, people at work have laughed at me.
I run a progressive modern marketing agency, and my secret work weapon is my 10-year-old Nokia 6310 mobile phone.
I’m not embarrassed. I’m a proud "simple phone" user. My Nokia 6310 makes and receives calls and texts. That’s it. It has a battery life of at least a week, always gets a signal and doesn’t break if I drop it.
The interface is user-friendly. I can do everything in the palm of one hand with one thumb, even with children swinging from my arm.
6310-adoration aside, I must confess I also own a "pocket computer" (aka an iPhone) for all those modern-day musts.
Every now and again when I make phone calls with my Nokia 6310 tucked perfectly between my ear and shoulder, both hands free to effortlessly multitask (do emails or shopping on my pocket computer), I see a look of envy in my colleagues and clients’ eyes. A momentary flicker of wonder at how I managed to get a signal in that corner of the office (it uses low frequency waves no longer over-crowded thanks to everyone else clogging up the high frequency waves with their smartphones).
And if that isn’t enough, my Nokia 6310 also fits neatly into the smallest of clutch bags and doesn’t fall out of back pockets. So imagine my glee when at Mobile World Congress this year, Nokia revealed its new multicoloured 3310 to great fanfare.
But I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place – my old handset doesn’t look as good as the new one. So, do I upgrade my trusted friend to the shiny new yellow version and let everyone think that I recently jumped on the bandwagon of "simple phone" usership? Or do I keep my trusty old handset, safe in the knowledge that I, for once, was ahead of the curve?
Jo Coombs is the chief executive of OgilvyOne