"a push to have users download their mobile app"
This is the blocker for me, every vendor wants you to download a different mobile app.
I had to on the spot download a mobile app to pay to get my car back from valet parking at a really nice hotel the other day. They only accepted payment via the app which they did not disclose before taking the car. I had to stand there for 10 minutes installing the app and setting it up and I will likely never go back to that hotel (becuase of location, not the app).
No idea what would have happened if I just had an old fashioned flip phone
I have a "feature phone" (dumb phone). In my experience, people just kind of look boggled for a minute and then give up. They probably would have just sighed and released the car to you, or asked for cash.
Fascinating that they just never accounted for that moment.
Although I guess it is incredibly out of the ordinary.
Feel free to ignore this question but what have you noticed going about life without your head in the screen? It must be a genuinely different view on things and I would like to get your perspective
Hard to say, as I've never had a smartphone so I don't really know what the difference would be. But I will say that I see a lot of people walking down the street with a phone to their nose, so... I'm probably seeing a lot of stuff they don't. :-)
The closest comparable thing is that I've gotten kind of hooked on listening to podcasts while doing chores. It's highly addictive and now I feel uncomfortable doing without. But when I do eschew the podcasts, I end up doing a lot of processing of my own thoughts that's probably pretty valuable. Kind of like shower thoughts, I guess.
I had to on the spot download a mobile app to pay to get my car back from valet parking at a really nice hotel the other day. They only accepted payment via the app which they did not disclose before taking the car. I had to stand there for 10 minutes installing the app and setting it up and I will likely never go back to that hotel (becuase of location, not the app).
No idea what would have happened if I just had an old fashioned flip phone