March 24, 2004
Cell phone firms told to go back to basics
"The purpose of a phone is a phone," hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons reminded execs in his presentation at CTIA Wireless 2004 on Tuesday, while Motorola's Ed Zander said that Motorola has banned the use of "cell phone" to describe its products, reports MSNBC in it's coverage of the event.
"Simmons told wireless executives that the industry should get back to basics by improving its chief product -- voice calls -- and only then focus on developing new data-centric features like downloadable music.
"Simmons' comments, made during a CTIA Wireless 2004 keynote address, run counter to the overall direction the cell phone industry is taking as it hunts for new revenue sources.
Competition has driven down the price of phones and phone calls, and voice call quality, and to some extent coverage, has taken a back seat to the development of data-oriented features such as embedded MP3 players, stereo speakers for cell phones or wireless broadband services.
And going off in another direction entirely, Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander in his presentation "went so far as to say that Motorola has banned the use of "cell phone" to describe its products.
"I like to call it the micro-TiVo-video-iPod," Zander said. "It's a device formally known as (the) cell phone."
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