To me, the biggest advantage of using my cell as a pager is simply that I only have to carry one device around. The biggest disadvantage is that if you don't hear the message come through, you don't know about it until you check the phone to see if a message is there. I don't have an iphone; I am the only one in my family with a dumb phone, but I don't think it makes much difference for this purpose (though according to Marty you get one "second chance" to hear the text message alert with the iphone).
