iPhone: Touch The Wave

[Peter Korsten]

The Dong schreef:

> Hate mobile phones much?
> Nobody really needs one.

Um, I work at Vodafone, so I don't actually hate them. :)

It's true, you don't need them, just like you don't need the internet, 
and you definitely don't need broadband. You still have it, though.

> Those that choose to have one are agreeing to pay ludicrous premiums (or 
> forcing the caller to pay these premiums) for a service that enslaves 
> you in too many ways; a service that is cheaper to maintain than wires, 
> yet costs way more etc.

Um, paying people to house a base station at their site, paying for the 
electricity, paying for the licenses, paying for the frequencies... 
there's a lot you have to pay as an operator.

> The argument that "I need one for work" is a lie.

I do actually need one for work. :) In case of an emergency (which 
hasn't happened in years), I need to be reachable, wherever I am.

> The benefits for emergency use are pretty much pointless unless you 
> really are going somewhere utterly remote and backward, like Iraq or 
> Afghanistan.
> Or Texas.

Or if you're stuck in a broken down vehicle in the middle of nowhere 
(like Scotland), and you don't dare go out because you're female and 
it's dark...

> If we rely on using these things, we truly lose our ability to make 
> independent decisions, volition is stupefied, relying on the voice on 
> the other end to reassure or guide us through every mediocre decision, 
> through every escalated humdrum moment.
> 
> Just to prove the point: My son has one or another for years and has 
> never phoned home using it (for the supposed emergency) nor have I 
> phoned him on it. It is just purely an expensive gimmick.
> 
> Why do so many love these P'sOS telecom honeypots ? ;)

The point you're missing is that a mobile phone is essentially a very 
different thing from a fixed phone.  With a fixed phone, you call a 
location, like a shop, or the McCleod family home. With a mobile phone, 
you ring a person.

Apart from that, a mobile phone can be made a lot less intrusive than a 
fixed phone. I'm yet to see the first silent-but-vibrating fixed phone, 
or a fixed phone that you can easily (meaning, not having to disconnect 
a wire) switch off, or one that you can send an off-line message with.

It just so happens that quite a few people are incapable of using a 
mobile phone unobtrusively, but that's not the fault of the phone. If 
you have this sodding frog at volume level 11 as your ring tone, or you 
speak so loudly that the other party could conceivably hear you even 
without the phone, that's more a matter of bad manners than anything else.

But the essence is that, if I call Gert's number, I'll get Gert, and not 
his wife, or someone who's visiting, or the accidental burglar. And if 
Gert can't be arsed to speak to me, he can just press the disconnect button.

>> against the rather hefty price tag, it's like getting a Lamborghini: 
>> really cool, but essentially a nice packaging around what the 
>> competition offers for a fraction of the price.
> 
> For free with the service, generally.

They're never for free. They may not charge you for the phone directly, 
but this is covered in the subscription.

- Peter