Cellphones: once a status symbol, now a necessity

Judy Harger-Gedeon just realized she has something in common with the short-tailed albatross, the bony-tailed chub, and the tidewater goby.

Like the others on America's endangered species list, Ms. Harger-Gideon - as someone who does not yet own her own cellphone - is a member of a fast-vanishing breed (call it, "personus noncellphonius").

"For all these years, I have been the ultimate Luddite, but even I won't be able to hold out much longer," says Ms. Harger-Gedeon, a 50-something executive secretary. "Now, it's becoming much more irresponsible and burdensome - maybe even impossible - to live in America and not have one."

The notion of the cellphone as necessity may not be universally agreed, but if you're in doubt about whether the device is transforming American life just try wresting one away from a teenager you know.

With a popularity and versatility that spans continents and generations, the cellphone may be on its way to becoming mankind's primary communication interface and a lifestyle tool that exceeds the personal computer in ubiquity, say watchers of technology culture.

Hyperbole? Perhaps. But the devices, used by 1 billion people worldwide, already go well beyond voice traffic to serve up everything from stock tips to movie times and photos of friends. The cellphone's rise is in some ways redefining - and raising concerns about - solitude, social etiquette, the boundaries of home and work, and even personal identity.

"The cellphone has moved from a helpful service appliance to a necessity," says Tom McPhail, a professor of media studies and communication at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. "Older Americans are realizing they are needlessly cut off without one, and for youth it has become a part of their persona and identity without which they feel naked, shunned, or isolated."

If the long-term destiny of pocket-size communication remains still a matter of forecasts, its present is clearly big business at the very least.

Rumors of a $34 billion merger between Sprint Corp. and Nextel sent shares of both companies higher late last week. The US Census Bureau recently reported that wireless revenues passed the $100 billion mark in 2003, rising 14 percent from the previous year. Some 172 million Americans own cellphones, triple the number a decade ago. But usage still lags behind much of Europe and parts of Asia.

Increasingly, reluctant new purchasers like Ms. Harger-Gedeon are finding they are laughably behind the curve if they tell the store clerk they simply want a device to talk into. Consumers are expecting the ability to send text messages, photographs, scroll news headlines, check the weather, and play videogames - wherever they happen to be.

"Revenues from the voice side of wireless have plateaued enough that companies have been racing to continue their income with data services," says Scott Silk, CEO of Action Engine, a firm that is developing ways for cellphone users to be one touch-tone away from the Internet. "The real future of the cellphone is going to be any and everything but voice," says Mr. Silk.

While older Americans like Harger-Gedeon are catching on to the fact that not having a cellphone could actually be considered socially obtuse ("A call ahead while stuck in traffic is no longer a courtesy but a given," she says), teenagers say leaving the house with the cellphone is as basic as having a wallet or purse and house keys.

"Everybody I know uses it for just everything, everything," says Melinda Burroughs, a 17-year-old in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Besides keeping her a ring away from her parents, Melinda says her phone serves as alarm clock and watch. It lists movies, text messages from friends, and latest sports scores. When cellphone use reaches a critical mass among teens, say experts, everyone suddenly has to get one.

While some industry watchers claim one of the fastest-growing groups of users are those between ages 13-24, exact statistics are scarce because it is still largely parents who buy them and pay for their use. But whatever the number, international cellphone use is still outpacing that of the US.

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