Iphone's run on goggle email. So if you link to a google email, all your contacts, settings and most apps will back up to google. If you ever loose your iPhone or get a new one, just point the iPhone email to google, and all (mostly all) apps, settings, and contacts will load over automatically. Also, logging into iCloud (if you use it or not) will also port over some information. You can do this all on Wifi with no sim, on a non activated device. So, if you have a separate device that you want to use as a "tablet" you can just link it to gmail, and your stuff comes over.