whodawannahuh?

BBC News has an interesting article stating: "One billion mobile phones will be sold in 2009, according to analysts." One billion phones sold is an insane number to me! The article also states that Asia will account for 1/3 of this sale, another insanely high statistic. This leads me to the main point of this post, why do mobile phones in America suck so much? The argument can be made that the wide land area of America has slowed the progress, but this only affects the service of the phones not the phones themselves. Even so, there has been enough towers to cover the majority of the country for several years now, especially near densely populated areas. I think causes to this problem, one being Verizon. Sure, Verizon have great reception but they refuse to use sim cards, making it very difficult to swap phones. Who wants to have the hassle of finding a new phone, going to a Verizon store, having them switch your account over and then switch your phone book over, it's a pain! The second issue ( I don't think this one deems a full blown "problem" status) is the view of cell phones by people in America. Cell phones are thought of as a tool of communication. While this isn't a wrong view to have, it is indeed the original purpose of a cell phone, but today's cell phones are so much more. With cell phones being able to play games, take pictures, browse the net, watch videos, and make payments for items, how can we view them as just a means of communication? This view of mobile phones therefore has stunted their growth in America. No one wants to buy a phone for an extra few hundred dollars that can do all those things when all they want is have a way to call people. Obviously there are people who would like those nifty features, and are willing to pay for them, but until the majority of customers are willing the companies won't be carrying as many of those cool phones. In the mean time, I'll stick with carrying around a few more gadgets in my bag to make up for the lack of features in my phone =p