Mobile phone? More like Super phone

"Can I see your phone? Does it take pictures?"

"Yeah, it records video too."

"That's so cool! I love your phone."

I remember hearing those conversations back at high school. Camera phones became popular around 2000. People base their judgement about phones on whether it has a camera or not. Why does a mobile phone need to be a camera to be good?

I think functions like camera and video recorder in mobile phones are used as selling points to attract customers. Jim McGuigan in his article "Towards a Sociology of the Mobile Phone" says, market hype and utopian dreams greatly exaggerate mobile phone's importance. The quality of the picture that a mobile phone takes becomes an important thing that customers consider. No matter how much advanced the camera function in a phone is, the quality of the picture will never be as good as the one taken by a real camera. You either look funny or blurry in those pictures. Well, that's because mobile phones are suppose to keep people connected and taking pictures is what real camera does. Mobile phone companies should focus on developing technologies that makes it easier to keep people connected, not how clear the pictures their phones can take. Let the real cameras companies to deal with that.

However, there are some good functions in a "Super" phone. For example, games, calculators and personalised ringtones. Why was the last time someone tries to sell you a mobile phone by telling you how amazingly its calculator works though? Mobile phone is trying too hard to be something that it is not. A camera, a mp3 player, a video recorder, a computer and even a torch...well i suppose a torch can become handy when you are lost in the dark. Anyway, I think mobile phone companies are trying to put everything on a phone. It is as practical as it seems. Advertising makes the "Super" phone looks super, but realisticly it is not. Camera phone is a perfect example. The reason behind this is simple, mobile phone is not doing what it is suppose to do. Instead of developing technologies in its own area, it tries to stick other media technologies on to make itself look good. Also, realisticaly, people don't really use any of the extra functions that they paid for. If we take away all the 'fancy' functions, mobile phone technology hasn't developed much. Ironically, we are paying extra money for a 'super' phone that does what ordinary phone does, but we can tell people what cool things it does to make it sound super.

"How much did your new phone cost?"

"$600"

"Wow, is it a camera phone?"

"Yeah, it also records videos, plays mp3s, sends and receives email, has Snake in 3D...It does a lot of amazing things."

"Cool!"

p.s. Snake 3D in new Nokia phones is...sad.