Cell phones were developed in the eighties and gained popularity throughout the nineties. By the year 2000, the teenage market began to receive cell phones from their parents and today, virtually every high school student has some form of mobile communicator to the outside world. I changed my sentence to “mobile communicator” because the term cell phone should no longer be used as a buzz term or as a device. I can’t remember the last time I had a “cell phone” that I just used for phone calls.. My first phone was a Nokia 5100 series phone from Cingular when I was 16 years old (I’m now 20) and was part of my Mom’ calling plan for emergency use only. I maintained my “phone calls only” rule but quickly observed students my age setting up AIM and began running her data charges through the roof. They were receiving weather and stock reports via text message every hour and constantly chatting with their friends via SMS messaging. Even in 2003 phones were not just for calling people and that’s my point.

My argument is sine 2000; no one uses cell phones anymore because these phones are not primarily used for phones. I believe the term cell phone should be changed to reflect the current feature set of these devices. A more appropriate would be, mobile communicator or wireless PDA. My current phone is a Palm Treo 700w running Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket CP edition (don’t you just leave Microsoft product names) and I love it. Andy Inhatko in the latest edition of Macworld UK stated that his HTC wizard flip phone running Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone edition was the best mobile OS he’s ever used and I agree. This phone does not do everything perfect but it does do everything good enough and stability is not too bad despite the fact that its running Windows. Back to my point, this phone is used as a portable camera (1.3 mega pixel), my portable web browser (with high speed 3G connectivity), an MP3 player (with a 2gb SD card) and a contact manager since it is constantly linked with my company’s exchange server via Active sync so all of my emails, contacts and appointments are synced and linked to my desktop at work. The last thing on my list is phone functionality and I do appreciate that the “phone” aspect of this device was an afterthought because there are much better ways to communicate with everyone via text and photos.

If you step into a Cingular or Verizon store and glance at their models that are “free” with a new service agreement, you’ll notice that all of those phones have Bluetooth, a camera, some kind of media player and a WAP web browser. All of these features are put in place to get you to use the text messaging, data plans and buy accessories like a Bluetooth headset but that aside, these are no longer “just phones”. I admit that my argument is kind of sparse and without any real argument besides features but I just wanted to throw it out there and encourage you to change your way of thinking and begin to call your “cell phone” a mobile communicator and begin the transition from paying your “cell phone” bill and begin thinking about paying your “mobile services” bill. Give it a thought and if you want a cell phone, I think the only option you have is that three button device from Cingular that has a button for on / off and presets for calling “mom” or “dad” and is marketed to younger kids as an emergency phone home device.