Just how important is your phone, er, spouse?

"I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while." - Groucho Marx

Chances are if you're reading this, you're pretty passionate about phones. There's also a good shot that you're sitting in your underwear, eating cold Chinese food, but that's neither here nor there.

But there can be too much of a good thing, as evidenced by a recent survey (opens in new tab) of "workplace professionals." [via]

Apparently 87 percent of you take your, er, devices into the bedroom, according to the findings by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts. (Yes, insert your own "I leave it on vibrate" joke here, filthy reader. And for our money, we're betting it's mostly CrackBerries (opens in new tab).)

What's worse:

In a potentially related finding, more than one-third of folks surveyed (35%) say if forced to choose, they’d pick their PDA over their spouse!

Gasp, indeed!

So to help you make your decision, we've worked up a handy questionnaire to help with your decision. Click through for more. (And for the record, tonight was General Tso's Chicken (opens in new tab).)

Your significant other uses:

  • A Windows Mobile phone (+10)
  • A CrackBerry (opens in new tab) (+5)
  • A Palm OS device (opens in new tab) (+3 for a Centro, - 3 for a Treo 680 or older)
  • An iPhone (opens in new tab) (0)
  • A Motorola RAZR (-10)

Your S.O.'s wireless plan includes

  • Everything unlimited (+10)
  • Unlimited nights/weekends, 200 texts, "unlimited data" (+5)
  • Plenty of minutes and texts, but just 5 megs of data (+3)
  • Bare bones minutes & data, pay-per-text (0, but they're probably smarter than you think)
  • No data (-10)

Your S.O.'s mobile browser of choice

  • Skyfire (+10)
  • Safari (+10 - So sue us. It's good.)
  • Opera Mobile 9.5 beta (+7, but add +3 if the device actually has the muscle to run it well)
  • Opera Mobile 8.65 (+5)
  • Blazer (+3)
  • Pocket IE (0)

For music, your S.O. uses

  • Kinoma Play (opens in new tab)/Kinoma Player 4 EX (+10)
  • iPhone's music player (+7 - if only it would stream podcasts)
  • Pocket Tunes Deluxe (+5)
  • CorePlayer (opens in new tab) (+3)
  • Windows Media Player (+1 - it gets the job done)

Bonus question: ARPU stands for

Your score

  • 50 to 60 - They're a keeper. And probably as big a nerd as you. And that's a good thing.
  • 30 to 50 - There's potential, but you have some work to do.
  • 10 to 30 - Outlook not so good.
  • 0 to 10 - You're better off with your phone in bed.

Full disclosure

This Windows Mobile user/writer is in the midst of celebrating his fourth anniversary with his Palm OS, Treo-using wife, and he bought her a new iPod Touch for an anniversary present. Do the math on that one. And, it's laying on the nightstand.

WC Staff
5 Comments
  • My Treo goes every place I do, the wife does not. Important? Yes and stupid on my part.
  • Wait - you mean it's not a choice? You can have both?
    Silly me!
  • why would I want my wife with me all the time? common people get real! if u had ur wife with u 24/7, you would divorce her in a year! love doesnt mean being with someone 24/7. Why would u even compare ur wife to ur phone. Ur phone keeps u entertain and in contact with many other people. It is not a replacement but a device that makes some people function.
  • Huh... so my wife must be an uber-nerd for a good match? LOL. The centro I currently have is the first phone I've had that she thinks looks OK, but she still has trouble using it if I ever ask her to answer it... never mind make a call. She's happy with her featurephone, and I'm happy as long as she's happy.
  • [quote=si_sedan07;1498646]why would I want my wife with me all the time? common people get real! if u had ur wife with u 24/7, you would divorce her in a year! love doesnt mean being with someone 24/7. Why would u even compare ur wife to ur phone. Ur phone keeps u entertain and in contact with many other people. It is not a replacement but a device that makes some people function.
    Hence I refer to it as my brain.