Who knew I had so many friends worried about my car’s warranty? Before Christmas it felt like a horde calling to warn me. If this has happened to you, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that these warranty calls have dried up. The bad news is that now they are worried about my medical condition and call to sell me healthcare insurance or some product that will cure everything from the heartbreak of psoriasis to male pattern baldness.
A little history. In 1983, Motorola introduced the first truly mobile phone. Can you remember those bag phones, so bulky you almost needed a suitcase? It had an antenna protruding from it, making it even more cumbersome, along with a $4,000 price tag. Quickly it became the status symbol for really, truly important people… or those just wanting to impress.
The cellular revolution was on. In 1990 the number of mobile phone users was estimated to be 11 million. Today it’s 358 million, 97 percent of adults in the US. Nobody can explain why there are more phones than people or identify the three percent who don’t have one.
In 2003, RIM introduced the Blackberry, featuring not only a phone but a camera AND, for the first time, emails. You had to use a number 2 lead pencil to punch the buttons. Then, in 2007, our lives were changed forever when Apple introduced the first smartphone, the iPhone, that could do almost everything but take out the garbage. And when parents bring a newborn home from the hospital there must be a…
