My mom's current phone is a hand me down Motorola Razr which actually finally bit the dust. She (my mom) is 50+ years old (no actual ages can be given here) and she started her own mortgage broking business about a year ago. She runs this by herself and she has run through a few cellphones but none of them Smartphones - which she could definitely use.

The crux of her business is that her clients can reach her at any time - outside the normal business hours of a bank, and that she does all their paperwork for them, especially since she has over 30 years experience doing this! Her contact information for her clients is still being written down in a planner - oh the horror!! This planner/ diary she changes every year, and so you can imagine that her phone numbers are all over the place! Her phone would primarily be used for contacts management as she meets potential clients everywhere she goes and they call her all the time. A Smartphone is great because she can back this information up on her laptop - don't get me started on how little she uses the computer.

The notes feature would also be great as she can quickly input information she needs. GPS - I would probably download Windows Live Mobile for her to easily use this to find the places she needs to go. She meets clients at their homes and frequently goes on home inspections - and she is directionally challenged - something she passed on to her daughter.

She also uses mortgage calculators a lot so I can see her reaching for a Smartphone to quickly run the numbers when she is out and about - and I've seen her quickly compute the rate of a 30 year loan at 6.5% a year for a $200,000 house in 30 seconds flat straight from her head - imagine how quickly she could do it with a calculator handy! There's the CalcNexus Loan Calculator for the iPhone and mortgage calculators for the Blackberry and Win Mo phones.

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