NYT’s Pogue: “The Year of the Cellphone”
The New York Times just published a retrospective piece by David Pogue in which he looks back on tech trends in 2007 and then starts thinking about 2008. His verdict?
2007 was the year of the cellphone’s marriage to the Internet. All kinds of interesting phones and services were made interesting because they married Internet data with the phones in our pocket: iPhone, GrandCentral, Teleflip, Google Mobile, Pinger, SimulScribe, SpinVox, and so on.
But if you think there was a lot of cellphone news this year, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The coming year is going to be the real Year of the Cellphone.
Pogue cites three big metamorphoses in the U.S. mobile phone world:
- Mobile phone carrier networks are starting to accept design innovations from handset designers and manufacturers, instead of just driving features themselves.
- Google’s mobile Android operating system.
- The masses are revolting: pushbacks on draconian contracts, cancellation fees and the like are finally starting to make a change in carriers’ business practices.
Pogue is looking to 2008 as the real year of the cellphone:
…as convenient as cellphones are, I don’t think anybody will complain if they get better. And in 2008, that’s exactly what they’ll do.