Number of Cellphones Now Equal To Half the Human Species

netbuzz writes "A major milestone was reached today, according to communications industry analysts: there are now some 3.3 billion mobile phone accounts worldwide. Of course, it doesn't really mean half the world's population has a cell phone, since users in 59 countries average more than one per person. '"The mobile industry has constantly outperformed even the most optimistic forecasts for subscriber growth," Mark Newman, head of research at Informa said in a statement. "For children growing up today the issue is not whether they will get a mobile phone, it's a question of when," Newman said. In recent years the industry has seen surging growth in outskirts of China and India, helped by constantly falling phone and call prices, with cellphone vendors already eyeing inroads into Africa's countryside to keep up the growth.'"

Comments

Never had one, probably never will.

[Beardo the Bearded]

I've never required a cellular phone.

I've never missed having one, even when my wife was quite pregnant.

Re:Never had one, probably never will.

[Saxerman]

If you've never owned a cell phone, you don't know what you're missing. I'm not saying that you would learn to love it, I'm just saying you're criticizing something you've never reviewed.

My own anecdotal story was that I came in late to the cell phone game, and I originally cited similar reasons to your own. As someone who used to have to carry a pager for work, I used to call cell phones the new 'digital leash' and swore I had no use for them. And, perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, I don't really need one, seeing as how I was able to function without one for so many years. But now that I have one, I find it damn convenient.

Although I do know too many people who feel obligated to answer their phone every time it rings. The 'trick' for me is that I control the tool, rather than the other way around. Turn the ringer off, and set it for wiggle mode on specific numbers who don't abuse the privilege of being able to contact you directly.

Certainly a cell phone is a tool that's not for everyone, but I find both the ability to communicate with who I want when I want, and easy access to information (operator, I need an exit) are new abilities that have increased the quality of my life. Even simple pleasures, like being able to call the pizza place while on the way home from work. The more pedantic will claim that I could have merely called before I left work, and they're certainly correct. But, for me, the ability to be more spontaneous is entirely the point.

Telcos suck as bad as the mobile companies!

[garcia]

"The mobile industry has constantly outperformed even the most optimistic forecasts for subscriber growth," Mark Newman, head of research at Informa said in a statement.

And the telcos constantly outperformed even the most dismal forecasts for subscriber growth by charging people for long distance service automatically because they didn't add a block onto their account (a $7 fee), they force them to have a telephone in order to get DSL, and they charge astronomical flat rates instead of going back to rate plans which are more reasonable for the amount of usage people require out of their landlines.

When my parents switched from having long distance on their landline (they have to get DSL as there's no cable where they just built) to use only their mobile phones I knew that time was up for the telcos.

Anyway

[El Lobo]

Anyway, believe it or not the major problem with this incredible number of cell phones, GPS devices, wireless routers etc is the so called "ether pollution".

This is NOT about health problems (tumors, camncer, etc) which, even if there are some theories, there is NOTHING definitively proved. The prolem is more of a technical nature. The number of frequencies, interferences, garbage signals, etc is nowdays alarming.

And there are also theories that say that this chaos is contributing to the global warming, but this is also debatable. Anyway, if you compare our planet today, this chaotic sea of signals is a BIG change from the "clean planet" we had 200 years back in the past.

Re:More than one per person?

[LBArrettAnderson]

I can think of a few cases, but I can't imagine these cases making up for the babies/children who don't have cellphones.

Some people have a personal cell phone and one for work that is owned by the company. Also cell phones have kind of replaced radios at many jobs (my office has 3 or 4 cellphones for people who go out and about).

The future of computing

[FridayBob]

For years I've been predicting that cellphones are destined to become the future of computing. They are the most powerful computers that we carry with us all the time, every day. Thus, as they gain more memory and processing power, it may become possible for them to one day host a voice activated user interface. Depending on how sophisticated that becomes (critics will claim that this will require nothing less than a true AI) the applications will be limitless and the GUI will become passe. I think that not long after people are able to dictate letters and other documents, we'll see interest in PC software in general start to slump. Just one thing: let's hope it will be Open Source, because whoever starts this will almost certainly become the next Microsoft.

Re:More than one per person?

[Iloinen Lohikrme]

Easy. Lets imagine you are an metal worker. At work you want to maybe use an simpler, roughed and cheaper phone, and when you are in private, you have more advanced and expensive smart phone. Or you could have one cellphone with work number that you use at office hours, and another one that you use in private. Either way, as new services like multisim, which allows you to have multiple phones with the same account and number, people for surely will have more and more phones.

Re:911 the only reason for land lines

[LordEd]

Everyone in the immediate vicinity dialed 911 on their cell phones and got put in a queue

Are you saying that the 911 provider for the cell service is likely to put you in a queue, or that the mass number of cell phones caused a queue? If you mean it caused it, then at least one person who called got through.

There are some cases where a land line is not readily accessible. I have called 911 on a cell several times and have never been queued. One time was to report a hit + run. I was on the line reporting the current position of the guy as we followed them (I don't think they realized we were). After about 5 minutes, the police were pulling him over.