The 80s called - they want their cellphones back

In some circles you’re the odd one out if you don’t own a phone that can receive emails and browse the net. But that doesn’t bother Amy Williams, who is among a die-hard group stubbornly resisting pressure to upgrade their dumbphones.

When I dropped my A7100 cellphone on a recent flight, the man who kindly picked it up joked that it was an antique. It had ricocheted along the floor and the back broke off, the battery bounced under a seat and the key pad came unstuck. But I knew without a doubt that when I pieced the parts together, it would beep back to life.And it did. That wasn't the case when I accidentally ran over it in my own driveway while researching this story.

Until that unfortunate day, however, my mobile phone had survived being dropped, chewed, GT-I9300 and cellotaped for the past 10 years all the while performing an exemplary texting and calling service. It didn't have a camera, the numbers had worn off the keypad and the colour faded to off-white.xdSDq2Ds

This relic was the second cellphone I've ever owned and a not-too-distant relative of the first mobile phone made 40 years ago.The act of getting my phone out of my bag had started to attract comments and curious stares. My mother-in-law recently asked me if it was my children's toy or a real one.

That's why I feel quite chuffed that the Oxford Dictionary has included a new noun for I9300TV phones like mine in its latest intake of words: dumbphone. The dictionary defines it as "a basic mobile phone that lacks the advanced functionality characteristic of a smartphone", which includes surfing the internet, receiving and sending emails, and downloading applications like the popular time-wasting game Angry Birds. But get this - worldwide there are still six dumbphones out there for every smartphone. That puts me in the majority, and not just with the elderly population.

A Research New Zealand survey conducted earlier this year found 48 percent say they own a smartphone, and that mirrors the numbers in Telecom's annual report last year.