h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've noticed a change of tack recently in mobile phone ads.

They seem now to be rather pitifully trying to persuade us that our phone 'says something about us' or that we should be 'ashamed' of our phone.

Let me guess. Is this because the market is virtually saturated now and so they want us to ditch our old phones and get the spangly new (and surprisingly expensive ) new ones?

Presumably the thinking here is that if they tell us the old phones are no longer trendy then we'll believe them.

My mobile is very out-of-date, but I read in The Evening Standard (London), that sometimes muggers will take your phone and then hand it back, if its old! So don't give in to the adverts, you will be safer. And lets face it, if you need a mobile to advertise your wonderful personality, then maybe theres something very wrong. Trouble is, they think we will be sucked in by the adverts - sad or what!?

Well with me, the last time I 'upgraded' my phone I *actually* downgraded it.

The reason?

Simple. The equivalent phone to the one I already had was about £120 on top of my contract.

Oh I don't think so. So I went for the one that came free on the contract.

and it's still a fully functioning phone too

As I've heard it, they removed the 'subsidy' on new phones late last year and consequently they're more expensive now.

Well I for one am not prepared to pay their even more inflated prices now.

I don't think it is sad they expect people will fall for it. What is sad is that they will.

Perhaps it's the last attempt to make money out of GSM phones before UMTS hits the market?

Er... you what?

To answer your question, mobile phone companies are getting desperate.

The sales of mobiles have failed to increase at the predicted rate, the large companies have been busy buying up networks and smaller companies in anticipation of huge sales increases which haven't materialised.

Although the companies' share prices have risen slightyly over this week, they are still low compared to their overall highest rates.

a friend of mines mobile died recently and she couldnt replace it because they had gone up so much in price. but when MaW bought one the other year it was £30.00.


mine came freee wiht my nans insurenace but i still ahvent learnt to use it


FABT

A large portion of teh population _do_ think your mobile says something about you, along with every other commodity you own. It's called fashion.
Personally, I'll upgrade my phone when I get someone I really want to send regular text messages to, or when I run out of books and need 'Snake' to entertain me.

What we need is a palm pilot with internet access and a closed system with H2G2 on it. Then we could start having it like DNA wanted it in the books.

And at a non-prohibitive price.

a friend of mine in a uni scourt and guide grounp went on camp for the weekend and posted to the s&g newgroups useing his mobile phone while he was away in the middle of the woods. we were all well impressed because this was four or five years agao and even few people had phones with internet acsess than do now.

personally i would just like a phone that doesnt turn itself on and drain the batterie when ever it looks like i might want to use it. i've had it for months and made 16 pence worth of calls so its not like i'e demanding a lot from it.

fABT

I handed back my company phone when I changed jobs a year or so back.

It was a wonderful moment. No longer am I enslaved to giving you an answer right here and right now. If I'm not in? Tough! Leave a message with the PA. Filtering out your pointless telephone calls is what we pay her for. And she's worth every penny thank you very much

*RTR*
Sunday evening I went for a meal with some friends. We were all very impressed when we realized that one guy had one of those mobilephone/camera/image messaging jobbies. He said it cost him £200!

Well once he's done all the, "hey look I can send you this picture with my phone," messages. What exactly will that function be good for?

(And I'm *still* resisting getting another mobile )

I fail to see the point in a phone that does anything more than make/recieve voice calls and text messages. If I want a digital camera, I'll buy one. If I want to play games, I'll buy a game boy. Want music, I have a walkman. A phone should be just that, something to talk to people with.

Those photo phones are daft anyway- they're huge- they're bigger than the first mobile I had, six years ago!

This one _wasn't_ huge, it was about the same size as my old Phillips one that has recently given up the ghost.
Perhaps I should point out to you that you may not have thought that text messaging was worth the bother just a short while ago...

And the point of text messaging is, precisely?

mobile phone companies are good especially since i work 4 one. there is nothing wrong with the sharp gx10 (picture fone) or any other fone for that matter. whats wrong iz that people just dont seem 2 put themselves in other peoples shoes and to think of the practicallity of certain phone...