What do you find yourself using your iPhone mostly for?
Browsing the net?
Uses it's multimedia functions for music and video?
Phone?
Email/SMS?
In the early days of the PC, one was often asked for advice on what kind of a computer to buy or what one might use one for. I always responded to these questions by exploring what applications the questioner did on paper or other media. This provided a context in which to answer the question what one might use the computer for and that provided the context for advising on the computer. Every now and then one would encounter a graphic or musical artist and one could recommend an Apple.
As a twenty year computer user and a ten year Palm user, it is not surprising that I use my iPhone for a wide range of applications but only one or two are novel. In fact as I scan the icons and bookmarks on my iPhone I find that I can put all of them into categories that I once did on paper or other media. These include news gathering, correspondence, reading for entertainment, reading for professional development, making lists, records, and images of people places, engagements and contacts, writing and composition, navigation and travel planning, shopping, commercial and banking transactions, listening to and viewing recordings, and playing games.
As time has passed, I use newspapers, magazines, books, post cards and stationery, 3x5 and tab cards, calendars, photo albums, little black books, maps, schedules, and timetables, catalogs and phone books, checks and statements, board games, and playing cards less, and the computer more. I am currently engaged in converting four linear feet of 33 1/3 vinyl analog recordings to digital so that I can carry them in my pocket. Needless to say I do more of all of these things with more efficiency and satisfaction on my computers than on the traditional media with which they are identified.
While I do all of these things on my iPhone, I find that it is more suited to some applications than others. Obviously it works better for viewing and listening than for composition or recording. It is great for reading e-mail, less so for answering it. Its biggest advantage is in its compact size and spontaneity. I now research questions when they occur to me rather than deferring them or forgetting them. I now carry libraries where I used to carry a book. For some works I have the text, audio-book, movie, and sound-track all on this one little device. Did I forget to say Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, and PayPal and all that these imply?
However, if you pin me down to what single application consumes most of the minutes when my iPhone is on, it is reading books. Listening to music is second. My twelve year-old great nephew uses his most for games, music, and books in that order.