Worst of the Week: Simpler times for simple minds

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So the holiday shopping season is rapidly approaching and, as has become a yearly tradition, wireless handset manufacturers are slowly unveiling details of their latest and greatest devices. And, in what has become a more recent tradition, many of the devices include features that are similar to Apple’s iPhone and thus dubbed by nearly everyone as iPhone-killers.
These killing machines typically include a smear-inducing touchscreen, battery life measured in minutes instead of hours and a user interface that actually requires an occasional reference to a user manual. Killer indeed.
A number of these devices have dribbled through the RCR Wireless News office, giving us a chance to stay abreast of the latest advancements. And what typically happens is that the initial excitement of unboxing a new handset is followed by a few minutes of ogling the latest features, a quick trip around the office to all the reporters, and by the end of the day the device is thrown back in its box to be forgotten until it needs to be shipped back.
Sure, we might be a little jaded to all the hyperbole surrounding the advancements made in handsets over the years, but for most of us the main feature of any phone is still its ability to make and receive a phone call, and unless the handset manufacturer made a serious error in design, nearly all of the phones can accomplish that un-sexy task well. It seems that most of us are of the idea that while it’s nice to have a device on us at all times that can perform a number of functions well, the need to consult a dictionary-sized book to access those functions makes it not worth the effort.
This emphasis on packing the most gizmos into a device has lead many of us in the media to overlook perhaps more practical innovations in handset designs, like ruggedized devices. I have been testing a number of push-to-talk services over the past several weeks and many of the devices used for the testing have come clad in enough plastic and rubber to excite a dominatrix. Most of these devices appear to have been developed by our friends at Tonka and are able to withstand the worst a four year old – or a dominatrix – could dish out.
These devices got me thinking back to when a phone with a color screen was considered news worthy. Or when a camera lens embedded on a phone was news – even if it had the photo quality of an etch-a-sketch. Just this past weekend I dug a nearly 10-year-old LG phone from a drawer and marveled at its simplicity. A monochromatic screen with strong contrast; no camera; a sizeable antenna stub for twirling the phone with or to just play with when in a boring meeting; just the bare minimum of buttons, all sized to actually be depressed by a human finger.
It was refreshing.
Now, if a phone doesn’t have more features than a BMW we brush it off with a yawn.
Now I don’t think I am ready to give up my current handset, which includes nearly every trick in the book that I rarely take advantage of, but the thought of pocketing a rubber-clad behemoth of a phone that lacks the gimmicks but gets reception inside a volcano is tempting.
Of course, now that all the money I have in my pocket has the same value as all the lint in that same pocket, resisting a life-changing decision such as this is that much easier.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–That loveable, unlimited duo of MetroPCS and Leap announced plans this week to settle their long-running legal disputes and signed a roaming agreement that could save both money and help in their fight against those big, bad nationwide carriers. I’m sure that is good news for both carriers, but I am a little saddened by the prospects that these two scamps may quit their amusing bickering. Or worse, these two companies actually make this teasing official and tie the knot.
–In another sign of failed history repeating itself, NextGen Mobile launched this week as an attempt to bring together small and rural operators to pool their resources in acquiring equipment to launch next-generation services. While a noble goal, there have been several of these initiatives over the years that have struggled to maintain the attention of involved carriers beyond the initial press release announcing the plans (think Associated Carrier Group L.L.C.). We don’t want to proclaim this latest venture as dead on arrival, but history has not been kind to such efforts.
–SanDisk upped the ante in the mobile storage space by unveiling a microSD card with 16 gigabytes of storage. Not sure how those engineers are able to squeeze so many bytes into something smaller than a fingernail, but I say we don’t let them off the hook. SanDisk needs to know that we won’t be happy until I can fit everything I own, including the kitchen sink, onto a flash memory card that I can store on my cellphone. That will be progress.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@crain.com. Or, if you prefer, leave a comment in the space below.