Most users think cell phones are too complicated

You can keep your iPhone, your Pre, and your newfangled Nokia, say cell phone users: Cellular handsets have simply gotten too complicated, according a survey undertaken by British mobile phone recycling company FoneBank.

FoneBank polled UK users about their phone habits and found that the vast majority -- 61 percent -- felt that their phone had "too many unnecessary features compared to ten years ago." As an example of this, 45 percent said that they didn't even use their MP3 player (in large part, I imagine, because they didn't know how). 30 percent said they didn't care about their phone's camera.

To be sure, the latest smart phones get all the press, but old-fashioned "dumb" phones remain some of the most popular handsets available. When asked what their favorite cell phone of the past 10 years has been, the winner was the venerable Motorola RAZR, prized for its portability and, apparently, its lack of extraneous features. A full 39 percent of phone buyers said they chose what phone to buy based not on what it could do for them but on how simple it was.

Consumers everywhere remain devoted to simple cell phones. While the iPhone remains the top selling handset, Motorola's RAZR is still the #2 phone in the U.S., based on the most recently available figures from NPD (Q3 2008). While it's the only extremely simple phone in the top five, it certainly isn't alone on the market: At the time of that study, only 30 percent of phones sold had a QWERTY keyboard available. 

And simplicity is the primary selling point for a small but important part of the cell phone market, with handsets like the Jitterbug offering a bare minimum of features -- no cameras, no streaming videos -- and affordable calling plans.

What about you? Is it more important to be able to browse YouTube while you're on the bus... or be able to figure out how to make a phone call?