Mobile Phones and Hostile Environments

Mobile phones or cell phones have become ubiquitous to our society in the past decade. Probably, it has become more common not to wear socks than it is to be without a phone. If the twentieth century was the century when movement of goods and people were the driver of progress, clearly the twenty-first will be the century driven by communications.

In the early days of the automobile, breakdowns and flat tires were so commonplace that they were accepted as part of the automobile culture. While over the years, cars have become incredibly reliable and safe to operate, cell phones are just moving out of the horse and buggy stage. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association claims that a third of the mobile phones in the United States is lost, damaged, or stolen within the first year following purchase.(Esecuritel) The same source indicates that there are over 200 million wireless subscribers, hence over 200 million phones in the United States that has a population of just under 300 million. If those living in nursing homes and going to preschool are omitted, it means that virtually everyone you see is probably carrying a mobile phone.

If one third of those 200 million lose or break their phones it implies a replacement market of about 60 million phones per year. According to another source, about 13 million phones are damaged each year. (CITA the wireless associatio

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ity to operate under almost any conditions. It is the opposite end of the spectrum from a sports car or a limousine type mobile phone. This does not imply it is uncomfortable, lacks useful features, is unpleasant to use or even ugly. There is a need for such products exactly as there is a need for the pick up truck. It is aimed at a specific market segment. Like the pick up truck, it does not need to be particularly cheap. Any artisan will admit that without the proper tools the quality of his output suffers. The same artisan will tell you that good tools are often relatively expensive. In the 21st century, the tools include those used to communicate. The price cannot be outrageous, but spending an extra $25, $50 or even $100 on a phone is not a serious problem for the market envisioned here. Current Market Product Offerings There is no shortage of choices in the mobile phone market. The problem is too many comparatively delicate phones, that do things in which the market envisioned here has little or no interest. For example: "Music-playing mobile phones integrating an MP3 play function have gradually become an important new sector for domestic and foreign enterprises alike, since the inclusion of a color screen a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1821
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)