Wafer-thin mint?

I continue to be amazed by consumer infatuation with razor-thin cell phones. Motorola has sold what, 50 gazillion Razrs, and Samsung seems to be rolling out a new “thinnest” model every other week. As they say, “Thin is in.”
Industry research firm Current Analysis noted that during the past three years, handsets have shrunk from an average of 8 cubic inches in size to 6.5 cubic inches. Now I have no idea what a cubic inch looks like, or for that matter how or why Current Analysis has been tracking those measurements, but I’m sure 6.5 of them is pretty small.
Maybe it was because my current carrier did not offer a compelling thin phone when I last plunked down my hard-earned cash on a new device, but I can’t seem to warm up to the myriad of metal-encased thin phones that pass through the hallowed halls of RCR Wireless News. Sure, they are engineering marvels that somehow manage to include nearly every available function into a form factor less than half-an-inch thick, but the necessary width associated with pushing the thinness boundaries seems to cancel out the slimness benefits.
Several of my co-workers (including Mike Dano, who recently purchased a Razr under the misguided ruse that it’s the choice of Delta Force members, in-touch ninjas and Chuck Norris) have jumped on the bandwagon and purchased thin phones for their own personal use.
But for me, “Phat is where it’s at.”
My current cell phone measures a beautifully plump 1-inch in depth, and packs every conceivable feature-including the ability to hold the phone in my admittedly clumsy hands without fear of a paper cut.
And even better, Big Blue (What? You don’t have a nickname for your cell phone?) offers several days of battery life. A handful of consumer surveys have shown that one of the biggest complaints against cell phones today is poor battery life. This is from the same consumer pool that keeps buying thin phones. It’s like people complaining about gas prices and the poor fuel economy of automobiles from inside their Hummers.
The battery-life problem will only be exacerbated as higher-speed wireless networks continue to roll out, which makes the thin-phone fascination more puzzling. Then again, most people buying wireless devices are not using high-speed services anyway, so maybe that’s not much of an issue.
But, I digress. I fully expect consumers will continue fawning over and rushing to every new thin phone that parades down the runway. As for me, I will just need to keep a bucket handy.