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Blame it on Gordon Gekko

Do you remember Gordon Gekko's brick of a cell phone in the movie Wall Street? He was talking to his hotshot broker Bud Fox while taking a leisurely stroll at his beach house in the Hamptons... The cell phone has come a long way since that era. No longer is it just a business tool for rich business men like Gordon Gekko, everyone from grandmothers to middle school aged children have them now. And no longer is it just a communications tool, cell phones today one may find, in addition to the phone, a digital camera, MP3 player, email, calendar, contacts, web surfing, videos, TV, GPS, Java applications, etc.

Check this out, in some parts of the world there are court trials of using a cell phone as a payment card; basically you wave your cell onto a pump scanner and the gas is charged to your cell phone bill. So you can pull up, wave cellphone to the pump, pump gas without taking out your wallet to make a payment while talking on your cell phone the entire time. And just imagine the possibilities if they integrate bluetooth technology to pumping gas, you may not need to get out of the car at all...

Cellphones, its technology, and i have never been akin. In fact until today, i didn't have a colored cell phone. I had an LG flip phone that did not have a face display, so when someone called i had to flip the phone open to check. Rather tedious... If i remember my cell phone genealogy correctly, my first one was a pre-paid Motorola by a local service provider called LA Cellular (remember them?). This was during the pre-historic cell phone ages when an enormous security deposit was part of the credit check and activation. So if you couldn't afford the deposit, you got the less fabulous pre-paid service. Shortly after LA Cellular was bought out i switched to Sprint where my my cell phone lived for three years. That kind of cell phone life span is unheard of these days, right? When i switched jobs i also switched services due to the nicely packaged discount deals, this time AT&T which was then widely popular for their robust network. I remained faithful to AT&T's GSRM network for the next 4 1/2 years, wherein i held the same cell phone the entire time... an unprecedented feat.

But AT&T wireless would suffer the same fate as LA Cellular, dissolved and bought. Cingular would take over and yet again, for me, another service switch. Switching services is actually relatively easy, save for the necessary trip to the Service store (unless you would rather do it online). See when you sign up for a new two-year contract, they pretty much serve you up a platter of options. I picked the $9.99 LG1500 flip phone with a face display, and yes it's colored (...and its not even the cheapest option). I suppose that makes me a cellphone-trend non-conformist. But at least now, even though it isn't as kewl as the Motorolas, i don't have to flip the phone open to check who's calling... And if you haven't paid close attention the current cellphone trend, right now it belongs to the Motorola Razor brands. The svelte phone that just about everyone is heads over heels about. I won't deny it, i love that sleek phone, it's like... Kelly Hu's cell phone incarnate.

And as cell phone trend-setters are born so are the hordes of adherent disciples. They're everywhere. I discovered this when the Jersey girl was here last December. She and her sister Marie each had one, so did the nine other people we hung out with including my friend Christian and wife Donna (and like everyone at work). And now my sister has one too... She called me, very ecstatic over her new Razor. She initially called me complaining why she couldn't just add another line (with a Razor) on her boyfriend's existing one just like when i added her to my family line a couple of years ago (Cingular has a $9.99 for each additional line deal). Being the veteran cell phone acolyte that i am, i offered my best advice "Why not renew your contract for another two years and get a new cell?". I guess even in real life i am Tech Support...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Thursday, May 25, 2006