Pft, to hell with the common man.
As for why, well people enjoy wasting time on stuff - is funny to count people with their noses in their phones on the bus/streetcar/subway. Well that and people who like being handcuffed to work. I have a Samsung Galaxy Q, low end smartphone, don't have a data plan so I just use it to watch Youtube videos in bed or leech wifi when I can to kill time in waiting rooms.