April 5, 2005
Connection and connections, down the drain
Keeping your cell phone in your back pocket is not always a good idea, according to USA Today, as it can fall out in the most uh, embarrassing places and most phones are not waterproof. There goes your connections and adress book, right down the drain.
"Mobile phones are the most popular personal technology around, but the ability to take them anywhere — including the occasional trip to the bathroom — carries risks, reports . "Plumbers, building managers, cell phone insurers and repeat offenders such as Phillips say such phone fates are more common than many people realize.
Neil Strother, a senior analyst with the research firm Instat MDR who specializes in mobile devices, said it's difficult to determine how many mobile phones meet their end in the drain.
Manufacturers don't offer many water-resistant devices, he said. Only a few handset makers, such as Motorola, offer "ruggedized" lines of mobile phones designed for emergency workers that can survive being dropped in water.
Strother estimated the truly water-tough phones — ones that could survive being dropped in a toilet — represent as little as three percent of the wireless handset market.
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