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

More featuares means more incremental sales

[erick99]

Cellular phone companies know that they are not far away from fixed rate "all you can eat" plans. Just like ISP's went from charging by the minute for Internet access to fixed rate "unlimited" usage. So, where do you get incremental income when you can no longer bill by the minute? You sell ringtones, you charge to transfer color pictures, fees for accessing the web, etc. etc. The more features a phone has, the more opportunities to sell something and/or upsell.

Happy Trails,

Erick

I would like to see more bluetooth

[mpost4]

I would say that with Bluetooth, cell phones should get less stuff on them. I had a friend said that with Bluetooth a cell phone can just be relegated to a communication conduit. Ideally the cell phone can be made smaller and just stay in the pocket. Or even put in a palm pilot that does not have an ear piece or mouth piece. And have it come with a Bluetooth head set.