You don’t have to look very far to see the shift away from smart phones to flip phones by the super rich and super smart. A whole host of respected publications from PC Mag, to Forbes, to Reuters, to Business Insider have written on the growing trend shift in the billionaire category board rooms.

It’s been widely published that business men like Warren Buffet have steered away from attention sapping smart phones preferring a simpler communication device with no apps, just calls and messaging capabilities. He did get an iPhone 11 in 2021 but reportedly uses it rarely and very little of its functionality.

To be clear I haven’t binned off my IPhone myself yet but I am fascinated by the people I know who don’t spend their life on their phone and to be honest those people are much more intentional, less distracted, better company, tend to be more successful and I am thinking there may be something in this no longer upgrading a perfectly good phone for a bigger better latest model that when you get it isn’t actually that much different.

I use my phone as more of a work tool, I have moved away from my laptop which I rarely use and split my work load between my iPad Pro a 12.9-inch tablet (4th generation, released March 2020 model) in Space Grey, featuring 256GB storage, Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity, and a Liquid Retina display powered by the A12Z bionic chip, it includes a 12MP wide/10MP ultra wide rear camera system with a LiDAR scanner for AR, and is compatible with the 2nd generation Apple Pencil none of which I actually use. When it was launched the retail price was £1200 but as this model was discontinued by April 2021 the current market value is anywhere from £400 to £600. If I am taking pictures or video I use my 12 max pro I phone.

Again my iPhone (which I purchased secondhand for about £600) started life in 2020 costing £1100. Mine with extra storage 256GB today cost between £250 to £300 so you can start to understand the billionaires mindset that say a Nokia 2780 at £90 is a better option and delivers way less brain rot.

It has been suggested by such individuals that smartphones steal your time, your thinking time, the most valuable asset an entrepreneur processes, the number one reason you don’t find them in the top boardrooms. It has been observed individuals who spend a lot of time scrolling feeds like Instagram TikTok and short form videos over time have real problems concentrating and focusing. Supporting the idea that your thinking brain is a muscle that if it’s not used and just directed it stops working entirely.

Quite a depressing scary concept for younger people no longer addicted to cigarettes and alcohol like their parents but certainly addicted to their phones.

Could I give mine up? Like I said I use it for work and store a lot of information on there particularly usernames and passwords for banking, credit cards, emails, just basic life stuff. I guess billionaires write that stuff down or secretaries who keep it for them on their smartphones.

I am half way to giving up my smartphone, the only reason I swapped over from my iPhone 6S to this one was my banking app stopped working and wasn’t supported and my iPad I like for the screen size but managing files and folders is a mine field I try to avoid and don’t yet completely understand. I am sure others can relate if I download something I often struggle to locate it and don’t yet understand the relationship between images in files and images in popular file manager app Documents by Readle.

There are a couple of films on you tube I often refer to link below with titles like How I Organise Files on iPhone and IPad (so I can actually find things) and the new photo app on iPhone to be honest I actually hate. If you take and manage a lot of images and videos, cut and edit them for content creation I haven’t come up with an easy system for storing and recovering quickly using albums or files.

I guess managing without smartphone technology if you are not a billionaire in the boardroom yet would be tricky although the big question is are you going to get there if you just can’t stop scrolling?

I have a couple of apps I like and use regularly, a free game I play, where the only thing I have to suffer is incessant TEMU and test your IQ ads on completion, easy to skip. I’ve never had a Facebook account, I don’t use Instagram to scroll, I have an account and post a couple of times a month, I do post on X but I am careful as I’ve already had one account cancelled for some rule breaking I am unaware of and could not get it back despite numerous attempts. In the end I had to set up a new email and start again which was a complete pain.

And it’s not just the financial elite moving to flip as many Gen Zs are prioritising mental health with less and less screen time, the stats are interesting on the flip phone market share and value. Watch out Apple and the major players on Android Samsung, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo and I predict it won’t be long before these companies are getting in on the action with a flip phone of their own. According to Google, the global foldable flip smartphone market was estimated at $31.65 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $74 billion by 2030.

I am swaying towards joining this new elite class and making the switch to a flip phone, I’ll keep my iPhone in my pocket using it just for the camera maybe. I do like to take a lot of photos.