I am a Blackberry. I am Curious Yellow. Can you hear me now? Things are getting very weird out there. Japanese girls are buying sodas from vending machines with their cell phones. People are surfing the web, watching TV, taking pictures, and attaching them to their calls as data, e-mailing like crazy, all on a device that used to be the size and shape of a brick only a few years ago. The funny thing is these little gizmos are very useful as mobile phones, too.
Does your phone include an MP3 player, camera, computer, game station, or PDA? Do you clip it to your belt or wear it around your neck on a pendant? This is getting ridiculous and expensive. If you have a camera phone, they're probably going to hit you up for $4.95 a month for data on top of your regular calling plan. About half of us have cell phones, but they take plenty of abuse, and whether you have a clamshell or a candy bar-style phone, it's probably time you thought about getting a new one. If you just bought a phone six months ago, that old phone won't even play video clips.
Here's another thing to wonder about: the good old lithium ion battery. Many old batteries can barely handle the responsibility of powering a phone. Wait until we start watching full motion video on those tiny little color screens, because power consumption is going to skyrocket, while your phone's battery life makes its move from the new products section to the obituary page. In preparation for this, they're now selling a gizmo that you wind-up to recharge your cell phone battery. That's like starting your truck with a handcrank, it's so retro, it might even be cool.
What's the gist of all this? There's no denying that we are in the middle of a revolution the trendsetters are always on the lookout for. It's all about computer chips and microprocessors. Moore's law says these things are getting more powerful and less expensive all the time. There's no doubt that convergence is happening, and the manufacturers keep adding new bells and whistles, throwing them out there, and seeing what sticks. Japan is a few years ahead of us in adopting new uses for its phones, but Japanese culture seems to be more enthusiastic about techno-fads than Americans are.
We really don't need to take pictures, play MP3s, or watch TV on these devices, but that's today, and who knows where we'll be in a year or two? If the price is right, we might be willing to start.