I hate that word/phrase. It is vaguely insulting and has airs of superiority from the person who utters it or types it.

Normob is a shortened catch phrase for "Normal Mobile" or the average mobile user, to indicate that the person one is speaking of is not of the heightened level of knowledge and superior usage of a mobile phone or device as the speaker / typer.

I am calling bullshit on this.

Get off your high horse. There is not some special tier for mobile tech bloggers and folks who stand in line to get the first edition of any given high end mobile phone, other than the tier known as fanboi*. Fanboi does not equal superiority. Fanboi equals passion and extraordinary desire to dig deep into one's wallet for the newest, latest, and greatest, frequently.

Just because your mom, your boss, your neighbor has the free phone with the monthly plan/tariff does not make them worthy of a derisory term like normob. It just means they have other priorities.

I have a friend who runs a literacy project in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa, and she *loves*loves*loves* Nokia phones. She loves how reliable they are, how they will keep working no matter what, how they can be used as a flashlight. No, she is not talking about an Nseries or Eseries phone, she is talking about the cheapest, most reliable phones that can be bought by the folks in Freetown, of which model number I have no idea what it is. So, are she and all the folks in Freetown "normobs"?

No. They are using mobile devices to the fullest extent of the ability of their budget, their local networks, and it suits them well. This is good.

Is my mom a "normob"?

No. She loves her Nokia N82. She loves the photos she can take. She likes to moblog her photos to her Vox blog. Can she use most of the other features on her N82? Mmmm... mostly not, not due to stupidity or normality but due to the fact that she wanted a phone that was also a very good camera. Those are the features what she wants from a mobile besides the ability to make phone calls.

Dear Mobile Bloggers and Journalists, let's drop the word "normob", to use it is snotty and below you, unless you would like to use it about yourself. There is no distinction between you and the folks worldwide who love their mobiles for very different reasons and ways from the way you do.