Tablet adoption could give flip phones new lease on life

Commentary Here's a list of people who tell me they want a simple phone: my retired parents who have easy access to a computer and two clunky laptops at home, my nonagenarian grandmother, and the tech-savvy CNET reader who just thanked me for my review of the Samsung t159, a $20 T-Mobile flip phone.

It may sound hard to believe, but basic phones like the t159 and others are poised to see a small uptick among an unexpected demographic. I'm receiving more and more e-mails from CNET readers interested in supplementing their investment in a Wi-Fi-only tablet with a cheap hunk of hardware adept at making calls and little else.

As tablets take off, there's a growing number of people who are interested in a tablet's larger screen, but who don't feel the need to duplicate their apps and tools on two separate devices.

For this set, there are a few practical options to save money and cut back on machinery.

The shift from small-screen phones that compute to larger-screen devices that also make calls is behind products like Samsung and LG's supersize smartphones, which hope to straddle the best of both phone and tablet worlds. Samsung and LG, and perhaps HTC soon, designed extra-large screen phones to nudge on-the-fence consumers toward an all-in-one device. (Of course, they'd love for committed tablet buyers to purchase their slates as well.)

The pickle of motivating customers to pay for two devices is also helping to drive AT&T and Verizon's new shared data plans. Both of the top two U.S. carriers charge a device access fee for data use on smartphones, tablets, feature phones, and hot spots. Beyond that, it won't matter whether you use your phone or tablet to tap data; the two act as one and the same.

Then there's the third route for budget-conscious buyers of personal electronics, using a larger tablet over Wi-Fi for e-mail, entertainment, photography (the horror!), and work, and tucking the inexpensive flip phone into the pocket or purse for routine or emergency calls.

Of course, some people may increasingly pull away from pocketable phones altogether and opt for a 4G or 3G tablet through a carrier and answer calls by way of a Bluetooth headset instead.

It's too soon to say where the trend is headed, but I'll guess that heavy tablet users today will find a waning allegiance to their smartphones tomorrow, and could trade in their do-everything handsets for a much cheaper and more limited model as their contracts end.