Plain Cell Phones Fading Away?

An anonymous reader writes "According to this Reuters article plain old vanilla cell phones are fading away in the US. Instead, the author claims, (after quoting some 'expert' from this company) that phones with fancy features (cameras, games, etc.) are starting to dominate. I beg to differ - one of the few things stopping me from purchasing a phone is the fact that I do not want to pay for hundreds of features that I will never use. All I want is an address book and a way to make calls."

Comments

Hmmm

[ambienceman]

Well I would say that Nextel, though they are starting to reach out to that pop culture market...is keeping that "phone that works" trend. Those things are tough...they do't have the damn extra bells and whistles that you don't need, and wherever they have coverage, service is great. I plan on sticking with them for awhile.

Re:Another thing...

[Mz6]

In most military installations you can bring the phone inside... It just cannot be turned ON.

I thought that was what they were FOR.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

If you work for the Department of Defense on a military installation, you are not allowed to bring a camera phone onto the facility. A friend of mine did, and they fired him on the spot.

I thought the whole POINT of the cameras was to get people used to them so they could be used for spying, detective work, etc.

Like the stereotype of the japanese tourist with the camera. They were ALL OVER the US starting soon after WWII, taking pictures of everything.

Turns out it wasn't just that one of the first non-junk manufacturing industries they got going was mass-produced cameras. A lot of it was industrial espionage. They went back and cloned auto plants, cerial factories, etc. right down to the layout of the machines.

(That's why it's so much harder to get tours of manufacturing plants these days. Kelloggs, for instance, used to give plant tours all the time. Was a regular tourist attraction. But they stopped them entirely after the Japanese cloned the rice crispies machine.)

Feature Tyranny

[fm6]

I beg to differ - one of the few things stopping me from purchasing a phone is the fact that I do not want to pay for hundreds of features that I will never use. All I want is an address book and a way to make calls.

That's my attitude as well, and probably the attitude of most cell users. But so what? It's not up to us. It's up to the people who make and sell them, and they need to grow their market and steal customers from their competitors. Which means they need incentives for people to use their phones instead of somebody else or even sticking with landlines. And the only incentive that creates any excitement is features, features, features, and maybe some more features.

Which often results in products that suck, of course, cause the work that makes for a really good product is usually subtle, or even invisible. Which means you can't sell it. So you concentrate on crap that actually makes your product less useful. You might call it the Copeland Effect.

Re:Whatever

[Jhon]

386 computers are still useful, but you won't find anybody selling new 386 chips anymore.

Except they are still being produced and sold.It depends on your application and needs. You need something reliable to run a metal lathe (which is what the linked part does at my in-law's shop) in harsh industrial conditions? Or do you need something cutting edge to play the latest games?

Man, just run to the cell phone shop.

[hummassa]

People don't realize, and it's not really documented, but *any* nokia phone with a IR/BlueT/serial connection will export the addresses in a XML format. check it out.

There will always be a market for "plain vanilla"

[jlagrua]

The US Government, including the US Military buys tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of cell phones (and various other consumer-grade communications devices) for its personnel & civil servants every year. And due to security restrictions, and rules regarding communications devices within restricted work spaces (or even restricted compunds), phones with cameras, voice recorders, 'walkie-talkies', and any other features which can be utilized to physically - or even virtually - transport data/information (including SBU [Sensitive But Unclassified] and FOUO [For Official Use Only]) are strictly and unequivocally verboten . Some spaces forbid even carrying your phone into it, even if it is turned off - and irrespective of what features it has! Therefore, there will always be a market for "one-trick pony" cell phones. I highly doubt that the manufacturers would shoot themselves in their collective foot and obviate probably one of their biggest customers world wide. And it's a fairly safe assumption that other world governments/militaries have similar restrictions for their personnel's use of phones as well. So, unless they come up with a way for the government(s) to permanently 'lock out' those features that could be construed as "security risks", I can't see the simple 'entry level' cell phone/communicator going away any time soon.

Regards