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.

Re:I would like to see more bluetooth

[LostCluster]

In theory, one could make a Bluetooth device that itself has no interface other than Bluetooth and whatever celluar network system, and then depend on other devices for the microphone, speaker, etc.

However, the cost of including a microphone, speaker, and small display, especially in mass-marketed form, is so small I just can't see that happening. It'll be cheaper for the cell phone makers to just hand you a standard cell phone with Bluetooth, and just tell you to ignore the features you don't want or need.

Re:Whatever

[FesterDaFelcher]

as long as there is a market, there will be plain jane phones. I don't think so. When the phones with the features are as cheap as the plain jane phones, then they will replace them. Take calculators nowadays. Most people could get by with add, subtract, divide, and multiply. But since it is so cheap, you've got square root, memory functions, tax functions etc all built in. and that costs no more than a regular calculator. There is a market for plain jane caluators, but you can't find them.

My view

[Mr_Silver]

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."

I beg to differ with you begging to differ.

Maybe in the US, but here in the UK it is almost impossible to buy a plain black and white basic phone.

Phone functionality works in 6 month cycles. What is high tier this year will be middle tier middle of next year and low tier at the end of the year.

6 months ago colour screens and polyphonic was middle tier, now even the most basic phone these days has them both. Next year the most basic phone will have a camera (and the high tier will also have cameras but be capable of pushing 2 megapixels)

Ever tried getting a phone that doesn't have SMS? You can't and in two years it'll be the same with the other bits of functionality you despise.

So yes, they are dominating. Just because you are holding back doesn't mean they aren't. But when yours bites the dust you'll realise that you'll have to move with the times.

Which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view.

Re:Games on cell phones are not new

[atomicdoggy]

Personally I just want one that has a ring tone that sounds like a damn phone ringing instead playing really annoying songs....

hundreds of features = hundreds of dollars

[Traicovn]

In some ways I agree with the author of this post. I mean, yes, it would be nice to have a camera on my phone (except that in all honesty, why would I use that camera when my digital camera is better), or instant messaging (except that keypad typing is really annoying, and thumb-boards are as well, and I'm not a JOT fan), and a web browser (if only I could really see what I was looking at), and fancy ringtones (my self-esteem is so low that I need some fancy song to play when my phone rings so everyone thinks I'm cool), and GPS (ok, so I actually like this feature), and a radio or mp3 player (except I can buy a better mp3 player or radio, a lot better)...

Ok, so maybe these features sound nice to begin with, but in all honesty, when your camera isn't that high quality (and yes, some are going to argue that they get GREAT pictures from their phone, thank you, I work in a publications department, lets compare your phones digital camera to our 10,000$+ digicams), your screen isn't big enough to really do that much, and the phone uses a keypad for text entry, is it really worth all that extra money?
In my opinion, not really...

I'd like one or two 'special features' but in all honesty, all I really want is a phone, an address book (and maybe a planner, if my phone can sync to my computer), really great battery life, and a good signal wherever I go. beyond that, there isn't much I want. I see how it's great that all these devices can come together (eliminate pocket bulge today!) but you end up with one somewhat mediocre device in the end.

I've been considering getting a combo pda/phone for a while, but the cost is just to high compared to the quality, and then when I see that most of them have internal (think ipod) batteries, and I know how fast I go through cellphone batteries, I can see myself being stranded somewhere without a charge when I might really need my cellphone, or worse, killing the battery from overuse over a few months (In the last 7 months I've logged 296 hours on my current cellphone)

Re:Games on cell phones are not new

[fenix down]

I work at Best Buy...

See, that's your problem right there. I worked a Best Buy one summer, and so help me if those customers weren't the stupidest goddamn motherfuckers on earth. And not even "how many megahertz of hard drive do I need" stupid. I mean "does this 52" projection TV take double A batteries or triple As" stupid. Walking out the front door with display items because they "couldn't find the cash register" stupid.

I'm sure they're excited by camera phones, but they get just about as excited if you jingle your keys at them.