My old LG clamshell dumbphone started to crack in the chassis a few weeks ago, in spite of pretending to be made of aluminum. I've been cruising on an iTouch/dumbphone/camera combo for many years, in part because VZW had a long-standing habit of clamping down on functionality to shunt people towards VCast.
Thus, I came in to buy a dumbphone and quickly realized something: those mothers were fugly. I don't know when it happened or whether it was part of a conscious strategy to push customers towards smartphones, but every clamshell sliding dumbphone in there looked like an exercise in non-serious cheapware. Rounded plastic edges, garish colors, 10$/month quasi-data plans? What??
Sadly, it worked. I found myself gravitating toward the only phones that didn't look like a plastic silver pebble of some sort. By the time they called my name on the list, I told the rep that I was either here for the cheapest phone they had or the droid. I left to think about it, came back that evening and bought the droid. As of today, I bit the bullet and got it ensured.
See, I don't think I could go back...