July 27, 2005
Why cell phones are the most important consumer device ever
Kevin Maney, USA Today's veteran technology columnist, on why cell phones are the most important consumer device ever.
"No sane person at the time ever thought these things would become the most significant electronic consumer device in history. But that's exactly what is happening.
Bigger than television. Bigger than the PC. Bigger than the telephone.
The cell phone's impact will be so huge because — unlike those previous technologies — it's so widespread. People in developing countries who a decade ago owned nothing more complicated than a water pump now have cell phones.
At the other extreme, middle-class teenagers in the USA now carry in their pockets a networked computing and communicating device more powerful than the mainframes that might've run a good-size company when their parents were the same age.
... Anything so big and powerful literally transforms society. TVs, PCs and telephones changed everything from daily habits to the world's power structure.
... The cell phone's impact will no doubt dwarf that of any device before it.
... "In Korea, there are these raves," says Sky Dayton, CEO of wireless joint venture SK-EarthLink. "Kids go to an abandoned warehouse, and they're dancing to music they're each listening to on their own cell phones."
... These gadgets will alter habits even more as they become the way people listen to music, get information, blog and pay for purchases at stores.
... Neville Street, CEO of text-messaging company Mobile 365, puts it this way: How many inventions in history have literally become part of your person — something you always have with you?"
Picture from Jagextreme - It's the November 2002 Wired magazine cover.
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