Saturday, January 15, 2005

Are Pre-Paid Cell Phones Good Enough?

After a few months without one, it's time to get a cell phone again. At the risk of being called a "Luddite" or worse (see some of the posts of Russell Beattie) I'm going to say we just need a phone right now, not a mobile computer. With limited usage and no use for a camera phone or text messaging, our criteria will be a screen that's easy to read day or night, buttons that are easy to use, and easy to listen with. After those are met, the phone that will be "good enough" will have the lowest cost for us with the least lock-in, and currently that seems to be a pre-paid cell phone.

Please don't infer from this post that I'm against cell phones with George Jetson era features. If I needed them, I'd buy them, believe me. And I agree with Russell that the platform is incredibly important - if I ever decide to do more software development, the cell phone is what I'd aim for, despite having a mainframe background, because a lot more people use cell phones than use personal computers. I just don't need the features right now, and so I'm not going to pay for them right now either.

No comments: