Is it about just having (I can afford it) a new toy, or having toys that are really needed. How many users just use because they can? Just because they can is enough to warrant their use?
The place where mobile phones have the most value is the so-called Third World. In countries where towns and villages could never be wired because of the cost, people who were completely out of touch with relatives, with emergency services, with job hunting, with friends - mobile phone technology ended that. I've seen it in the mountains in North Africa and in remote farming villages in Mexico.
The cameras in the phones will do the same things. Try getting film processing in the Middle Atlas mountains. Then think about how people can send images of a new baby over the phone to relatives in another country.
I'm sure the quiet space in Virginia is wonderful, but that comes from a perspective of having lots of communications capability and a lot of mobility. Most of the world doesn't have that, which is why cell phones have caught on in some of the poorest places - it's the only way they will get some of the things people in the more developed countries have had for decades.
Jeff Spirer Photos: http://www.spirer.com One People: http://www.onepeople.com/ Surfaces and Marks: http://www.withoutgrass.com
