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Stop trying to pack everything into the cell phone!

• If it can phone people, and has a clock, that's enough for me. Where's the iPod equivalent of a the cell phone? Speaking from a style standpoint, less is always more. Why more more more?
• I agree with everyone below: no one has a landline if they are <30, text messaging is an art form so it's only popular among non-lazy people with limber fingers (count me out), girls use the phone a lot( again, count me out because I avoid phone calls), and cell phone companies know how to swindle you but honestly, get another plan (be honest with yourself about how much you use the phone).
• Amen to that. I buy the smallest phone with the least features. I don't need a low quality digital camera or an mp3 player that can't hold enough songs. Give me something small and simple.
• I have a landline because I live in a dorm and it's free to me, but I probably won't have one when I move. I'm occasionally tempted to look into phones with e-mail capabilities, but they're all so expensive and inconvenient. I worry that I would spend a lot on retrieving e-mail and sorting spam, things that are easier on the "big screen" of my computer anyway. I do use text messages a fair amount.
• I love to text, but it can get expensive. Cheap text packages are a must. Other media options seem to be rarely worth it (unless you're a techy with a Treo, which I'm not).
• I've noticed phones are getting sleeker and more advanced. I have a camera phone, which I never use because I have a digital camera. If in the future a multi-tasking phone is all the rage, I have one request: I better be able to command it with my voice. I rarely use all the features on my phone because the keypads are way too small. Phone companies need to realize that I am a L-A-Z-Y girl with poor eyesight.
• We care about looks. The Moto Razr sells quite well despite its terrible, terrible interface. Making huge phones (like the Treo and Blackberry) is fine -- many people want these features. However, many of us also want small, sleek phones that do the basics, but do them well.
• I love having a picture phone. I thought it was useless when I first saw it, but now I take pictures of stuff I never would have. And when I'm trying to text someone to explain something, I can just send them a picture instead. I can play music on my phone too, but I'd rather use my iPod
• SERIOUSLY! I want complete control of my cellphone. I want to be able to get it down to a list of contacts, an alarm clock & that's about it. I want to be able to program my buttons to my liking, download whatever ringtones I want and not have to fight my phone in order to use it.
• I like feature rich cell phones. However, I have a limit. The way things are going, its becoming increasingly difficult to purchase a phone with 'the right' features. Its next to impossible to find a phone without a camera, and I like my camera phone. However, I am an ipod user and I would never purchase a phone with an mp3 player, is that going to be the next feature you automatically have to buy?
• What about the few of us who have cellphones because we travel along alot? I just want a phone with an address book, caller ID, and a clock. It's a phone, not a PDA!! Give me a simple, inexpensive plan with a simple, inexpensive phone. I want my mom to be able to reach me if she has a problem, and I want to be able to call a wrecker when I have a flat, and not have to hunt for a payphone, or walk down the highway.
• Make phones simpler. We don't need all that crap to drain our battery life. Let us choose what applications our phone has or doesn't. Allow an easy interface for adding or deleting items. We don't need a phone that is an MP3 player, 12 megapixel camera, corkscrew and water fountain. Let me call, text, calculate, and wake up.

Counterpoint: Packing everything into the cell phone is the future!

• The iPod is dead. Anything the iPod can do, can and will be done with mobile phones. Many don't do it well at the moment, but come on, it's only software. The new video ipod will be touch screen. My P900 has been touch screen for the last 2 years. Just add software + storage space.
• The current batch of 2.3 megapixal phones just about eliminate the need for a $200-400 digital camera. With corrected usability the new batch of 3MP and up will make u look silly holding your single use digital camera.
• The new SonyEricsson P990 with wifi, support for 4gb duo sticks, internet and a decent camera. For what? How about free phone calls with Skype, instant photo/blog uploads, watching a full season of Prison Break, a network storage and back up device, Google anywhere.... the list goes on.
• I use VoIP to talk to my relatives in Argentina.
• I take pictures of random cool things and blog about them from my phone. I hate carrying my digital camera with me unless I plan on taking pictures, so I've been able to snap photos of things I never would have before (albiet said pictures are of low quality).
• Ever since I've had internet/Google on my phone, arguments are settled on the spot. No more making erroneous comments. If you are talking out your ass – you are getting called out.
• Agreed. The cellphone will be the one stop for most information on the road. Smaller electronics, means more power. More power means more features packed in.
• The big difference here is that nothing needs to be nailed down in advance. Changing plans and breaking engagements can be done on the spot, and while I don't always like that, sometimes the firmest commitment I can get is "Call my cell when you're close". And, of course, cell phones don't always work.
• I recently realised I can catchup on my list of blog feeds while travelling. [Opera Mini] is a great little addon to your java-enabled mobile and by browsing with it to [Bloglines Mobile] you don't have to worry about syncing the read/unread items.
• I need 'everything' packed into a phone. My phone is my MP3 player, GPS, email repository, web browser, chatter, emergency (video) camera, PDA, wireless modem, telnet, check register, remote control and general timesink. I am very fastidious about charging so battery life is never a problem. All I need is 100GB on my phone and I would carry it and nothing else.

One obvious upside is, in my line of work, a phone can allow me to work anywhere with reception, especially if it includes email. It also softens the blow when I flake. Last week, for instance, I forgot my friend's address, and also discovered I'd lost her number when I switched phones. So, feeling like a total tool, I whipped out my Treo, signed on to Gmail, and scanned a record of our chats - not email exchanges, but saved chats - until I found the one where she'd given her address. The end result was I was 5 minutes late instead of 50

Every single one of us has a cellphone

• I've been sans landline since 1997 (luckily my old job covered that, as cell plans were unreasonably high back then)
• I got my first cell in 2005, and it's not even a real cell (it's a pay-as-you go). I use my landline for local calls, my boyfriend's Metro cell phone (which has unlimited minutes) for long-distance calls, and text other long-distance numbers on my pay-as-you-go phone. I thought I was customizing my telecomm usage according to my friends/social needs, but really it's the other way round: I don't talk to people with long-distance numbers for very long and I can never break up with my boyfriend because all of my numbers are stored on his cell (R, call me on HIS cell)! I hate instant message and I just deleted my friendster account.
• Almost nobody has a landline (unless we're forced to) - I haven't owned a landline in almost 4 years, and when I stay at my parents' house and use their prehistoric landline phone, it feels strange somehow. The phone seems enormous against my ear, and I'm never sure if I need to dial area code first or what the system is now. Last time I was at a hotel, I had to ask my dad how to get an outside line.
• I agree with above. When my landline rings I don't even pick it up. If someone wants to reach me they know to call my cell. When at college I would IM someone to get ahold of them (or read their away message to see where they are) rather than call them. Phone were more of a night-life thing (when no one is online).

--Unless I'm at work, this is the only phone I use. I don't use my dorm phone and I when I go home I don't use the home phone. Free long distance, how could you go wrong?

• I got a cell phone when I went off to college, and honestly it's been so helpful. I use mine for work as well as for personal calls, so I feel like it's an investment. I think my 15-year-old siblings shouldn't have cell phones, but for being in college they are key. When I studied abroad I bought a pay as you go phone to use in Europe, and I can honestly say that the American system of contracts and free minutes is much better.

*I do think that cell phone etiquette in this country is pitiful. I can't remember the last time I went to a public event where a cell phone DIDN'T go off in the middle -- and that's often with reminders at the beginning to turn off or silence phones. I know for some people a cell phone is a lifeline for work or personal reasons, but I think the vast majority of people who keep their cell phones on just don't care that they're interrupting a movie, a play or some other kind of event -- it's not an emergency. Learn to turn off your ringer and keep it off -- don't just shrug when it goes off and say, "I'm waiting for it to stop ringing." And don't you dare pick up and just try and talk quietly. We can hear you!

• Cell phones are so prevalent that people are absolutely dependent on them. One downside to our over-reliance on cellphones is that nobody memorizes phone numbers any more. This over-reliance on stored phone numbers is a problem if for some reason your phone is dead and you need to call your best friend, but don't know the number. We also depend on cell phones in order to coordinate any kind of social meeting. People rarely say "meet me at X location at Y time." Everyone just says "call me when you get there and we'll figure out where to find each other."
• Everyone uses cell phones, and yet, they are such fragile little creatures. I am waiting for a waterproof tank of a cell phone (drop-proof, toilet-proof. . . come on, I'm not the only one who's dropped my cellie in the loo). I understand that cell phone manufacturers only want them to last for a designated amount of time. Right as your model is failing, the companies entice you with new, prettier models with cameras (a waste of time) or web access (don't stay too connected guys, it makes you seem uncool). They make you think that YOU actually want a better, newer, sexier machine that you can fit in your billfold. I am not fooled, I am irritated. I hate cell phone companies to begin with (as do many others as indicated below) BUT if I was offered a Range Rover of a phone, a phone I could both take on safari or out to a cocktail party, a phone that would actually last longer than a year, THIS would demonstrate my company's commitment to my happiness and thereby increase my long term loyalties.
• Above, the assumption was made that nobody under the age of 30 has a landline. This is not necessarily true. I would say that almost all of this age group has considered going without a land line, but many will have to have one. My home security system requires a land line, so I'm stuck with it. In my area, I can't get "naked" DSL, so I have to have a land line and phone service to have DSL. Yet another reason is that we live in a cellular dead spot. Drive a half mile away from our house and you get a full signal, but in and around it, signal drops considerably. We live in a suburban subdivision, which should not be short on cellular signal, but it happens to drop off with both Cingular and Verizon service.
• I haven't had a landline since I went to college. Once, a utilities company insisted on getting my landline number, but we worked it out.
• I'm getting married in August and it seems like a normal thing to do to get a landline. But what's the point?
• It's an invaluable tool for staying in touch with my clients. My office answering system and cell phone greetings cross reference each other so people calling me who don't already know the numbers can obtain them easily. I don't understand social critics' slamming cell phone and our apparent cellular mania.

Man is a tool-using social animal. We were given advanced brains so that we could create extensions of our hands, senses and minds. Cellphones are an elegant example of this. Let's face it, we humans love to stay in touch!

• I have a VOIP line and a cellphone. I think VOIP will replace the traditional landline, not the cellphone. Not everyone has a cellphone, but its obvious that an increasing number of people have them. We have very few friends who don't have a cell.
• I have a landline and a cell phone. Reception is bad in my home town, landline doesn't cost very much where I live, I get discounts on my cellular bill for having both lines, and I have guarranteed access to 911 with a landline. My cell phone is for my car. My landline is for my house.
• I've had a cell phone for 8 years, before I could even drive. I lived off campus for two years at university and never had a landline because my roommates and I all had cell phones. I've lived abroad for the past year and found cell phone use in Europe even more prevalent (and sometimes annoying) than in the US. I wish it wouldn't be so expensive to have phones that used both bands so that we could take a phone anywhere. My cell phone now is the only way of getting in contact with people.
• I've had my cellphone since 1998. I did away with my land line two years ago at which time even my fax machine was obsolete.

Phones are for calling people and text messaging

• We use text messaging all the time. Some of the super-geeks use Internet, but not many. Text messaging is ideal for situations in which you don't actually want to talk to the person, or cannnot because your current surroundings require silence, but need to communicate a message to them semi-urgently and be left with the peace of mind that they will receive it soon.
  • Please make it easy to place calls AND write messages. Motorola is guilty of having an extremely difficult user interface and menu system.
• We rarely do 3-way calls, and almost never do conference calls of 3+ people. (I know that my cell phone has 3-way functionality, but I have never once used it in my 7 years of cell phone usage. The few times I've participated in 3-way calls with friends, I've let someone else connect the third person)
• Compared to the past, we rarely call friends just to talk. Instead, that kind of casual checking up is done via instant messaging (by peeking at other people's away messages), social networking (checking others' profiles on TheFacebook, email, and text messaging. This is especially true for young people who have desk jobs with internet access. I work at an internet company where instant messaging is actually a required form of communication between employees, so this makes it easy to chat online with friends as well without arousing your manager's suspicison that you are being unproductive. Emailing is obviously a staple form of communication at work, and while our Inbox is being inundated with work-related emails, it helps to take a break from this by emailing friends and family for some pleasant distraction.
• Except girls. Gah why do they use phones so much. (I am a girl, so I'll do my best to explain this phenomenon. For girls, talking is like breathing. It is almost an involuntary action, and we need it to survive. So naturally mobile phones have improved the quality of our lives and enabled us to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere. I definitely still use the phone as a social device, but admittedly less so, now that we have email and instant messaging as well. Much of my cell phone usage is for making plans, meeting up with people, and avoiding boredom while I am out by myself, but I definitely still enjoy catching up with friends via lengthy conversations on the phone.)
• As a differnt 'girl' I hate talking on the phone. I love my Blackberry because I can respond instantly to people's calls via email or a text message. Talking on the phone seems to be a waste of time. I have switched much of my life around to emailing to schedule a meeting and then talking in person.
• If I still keep in contact with you on a regular basis, email or short phone convo is fine. Otherwise, I'd want to meet up (not spend hours talking).
• I suspect that all-in-one devices like Blackberry, Treo will become more popular, and quick e-mails will supplant text messaging...
• I know all these companies are trying to come out with ways for us to have social networks on phones, but I don't want that. I just want to use my phone and have good reception and send a few text messages. (I completely agree--social networks on phones sound unnecessary)
• Text messaging is here to day and I'm at a point where I can now text message with one hand without even looking at the phone.
• Text messaging is also a nice way to "breaking the ice" with people you might want to get know, especially of the opposite sex.
• The biggest idea about text messaging that most people don't realize but do appreciate is that when a call comes in, you have stop what you are doing and focus on taking the call and you have to respond instantly. But with Text messaging, you can view the message, think it over and five minutes later send a response, and you're not interrupted from what you are doing.
• I use my phone for sending pictures, calling people, texting, checking e-mail, getting directions, ect. I use it as a mini computer
• I keep up with my family's day-to-day life by chatting with them in 15-minute intervals at least once a day, and often more often. I would text more if I didn't have to pay ten cents a message. Ditto for using mobile internet, though I will use Google Local via SMS to look up a business's phone number or address while on the go.
• Why do I get charged for sending a receiving a text message? If I share a plan with my wife and I text her, it costs me money to send it and her money to receive it. How is that good customer service?
• I don't like sending test messages. I either leave a voicemail, or drop them an email. No one I associate with uses text messaging - its either voice calls or emails. The service is useless to me.
• It won't be long and WiFi/Voip switchable camera/microcomputerphones will be ubiquitous-I love my TMo SDA!
• I text and call all the time. Unfortunately, I do not have a Nokia anymore as that was the best for texting. Motorola flip phones (due to their design restrictions I assume) are not great keypads to type on.

We all hate the phone companies

• Stop trying to screw me over! Why is it when I don't do anything different, one month everything's turned on it's ear because of a glitch on your end? BAD. NO. STOP IT.
• The worst is the impossiblity of getting access to the newest phones on the other side of hte planet. Sony Ericsson seems to have an absolutely incredible design team who put a great deal of effort into form AND function, and as American consumers we're only allowed access to models 2 years old and over - if at all.
• These companies are making a killing. We need reasonable unlimited plans that include internet access. Nickel and Diming consumers to death is bad business, which only works due to lack of options.
• I love T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan! Nothing hidden. Just $0.10/minute, including tax. No plan, no bills, pay as little or as much as you use (forces you to talk little, get to the point, keep fewer friends..)
• Sprint, Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile: They cost too much, rip us off all the time, and reception is still bad! Why! (They do it because they can--necessity breeds sloppiness. They know that we are completely hooked and would not be able to function without our cell phone. I sleep next to mine.)
• BUT....if you threaten to switch cell companies, all of a sudden, they don't see you as "hooked" but instead offer you more free minutes and extras. Try it.
• Their monetization strategies are ANNOYING. Either give us a an entire "customization" package for a few bucks or a month, or nothing at all. The $0.99 per ringtone, $1.49 for CallBack tones, $0.10 per MB downloaded, etc. is all annoying and obvious in its intentions. Let us pay one fee and change our phones on the fly.
• I'd like to see more of an effort to have all of the contact lists (e.g. email, IM, phone) integrated, in the sense that on a cell phone, I would like to be able to IM someone or call them or email them, depending on the situation; and I'd like that to extend to my laptop too. I'd also like to be reachable on any of these devices, e.g. if someone IMs me, and I'm away from my laptop, have the IM go to my phone or something, or receive an IM that someone has sent me an email, etc... Phone companies need to provide more transparency in their networks in order for someone to make this a reality. VOIP is part of the answer, but more integration is necessary.
• NOTE: I pay for everything online, all my bills that is. Make it easy and trustworthy. I had a horrible experience with Cingular.
• I am a customer of T-Mobile and they are nice to you if you are always paying your HUGE bill. I've been a customer for over 5 years and I was late one month and they almost sent me to collections and kept calling everyday. So the companies are you friends as long as you pay the monthly bill and on time, otherwise you're a spec of dirt for them.
• You have to know how to hack your phone so that you dont have to pay for everything. I pay for my normal bill and that is it. I have never had an issue with verizon!
• My bill is completely unreadable. Sprint customer service SUCKS. And it's so difficult to get a plan that makes sense for me. There's so many options. Sprint should track how I use my phone & pick the right plan for me. I want my phone company to give me the illusion that they care. With actual options & helpful service.
• It's kinda 24/7 with me. Starting from morning alarm, as watch,usual GM messages, for checking status of Morning train/bus with friends, games, memory storage, reminders, and lots and lots of stuff which keeps bubbling in my mind, I store it on Mobile Phone. So that I can feel relaxed/empty. :)
• I hate cellphone companies and they way we (Canadians) are bound to a company by a cellphone number. Come on March 2007, when we will be able to carry our number from company to company.
• Sprint tried to screw me over so many times. I tried to port my number away from them and I had to call them about ten times to make that happen, and I still get bills claiming I haven't paid a porting tax -- to the tune of $3.50! I was dropping all my calls, and they wouldn't even let me change services. Now I have Verizon and they are so much better. They even gave me $200 towards my next phone when my contract was renewed, so I got a much nicer phone than I would otherwise have been able to afford.
• No, I hate the cellular company. The company that provides my landline and my DSL has been very good to me. They charge what I think are reasonable prices and the customer service has been excellent. I've had to have a tech come out exactly once, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get my problem fixed. It seems like cellular companies are out to screw the consumer. The plans are hard to compare, the phones aren't compatable between companies, there are a million hidden fees, and the marketing makes you think you just have to have one. The cellular companies need some kind of incentive to simplify billing, calling plans, and phone, plus to improve their customer service. The consumer is king in America, but we aren't using our dollars to show our dissatisfaction.
• Bad reception isn't always the carrier's fault. Some communities fight the erecting of new cell towers tooth and nail, even if it means resolving frustrating dead spots.
• The best thing that happened in the US in the mobile world recently was giving customers the right to retain their phone numbers no matter which service they were with.

Where Things Seem To Be Going...

• CiceroPhone looks promising. Here's a review: http://www.arcchart.com/blueprint/show.asp?id=383 and here's Cicero's site: http://www.ciceronetworks.com/
• Has anyone seen the cell phones in Japan?  They are so many lightyears ahead of us it's ridiculous!  I hate my American phone and long for the day when they mature to the point that they'll equal the current standard Japanese cell phone.  I want emoticons and other icons I can choose to insert into my text messages, I want my credit card on a chip inside my phone that I can sweep over pay terminals at registers, I want biometric security, I want a key pad that's large enough to type on and a huge screen with beautiful resolution, and oh yeah... I want to be able to watch TV and listen to the radio whenever I want.  Here's a small sample: http://www.handcellphone.com/archives/softbank-705p-cellular-phone-kicks-motorolas-butt

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