axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
The Economist has very interesting article on how "cellphones are now the dominant technology with which young people now define themselves and how in many respects, mobile phones are replacing cars".
"What sort of phone you carry and how you customise it says a great deal about you, just as the choice of car did for a previous generation.
In today's congested cities, you can no longer make a statement by pulling up outside a bar in a particular kind of car. Instead, you make a similar statement by displaying your mobile phone, with its carefully chosen ringtone, screen logo and slip cover.
Mobile phones, like cars, are fashion items: in both cases, people buy new ones far more often than is actually necessary. Both are social technologies that bring people together; for teenagers, both act as symbols of independence. And cars and phones alike promote freedom and mobility, with unexpected social consequences".
[...] "Less visibly, as the structure of the mobile-phone industry changes, it increasingly resembles that of the car industry (see article). Handset-makers, like carmakers, build some models themselves and outsource the design and manufacturing of others. Specialist firms supply particular sub-assemblies in both industries".
http://www.economist.com/opin[....]playStory.cfm?story_id=2628969
[addsig] |
Posted: 2004-04-30 13:51
