The other day, I was driving to a doctor’s appointment in a doctor’s office I’d never been to before. I was referred there by a sports-clinic doctor with very messy writing. I read the address of the doctor’s office as “XXXX St. Mary’s.” I did a quick check on Google Maps for the address and set off for my appointment.

The slip that the sports-clinic doctor gave me said there was a $75 non-attendance fee, so I was nervous to be on time. I got to St. Mary’s Street with about 2 minutes to go, and was feverishly looking for the right address. I had printed out my Google Map guide so I knew exactly where to look. The funny thing about this map, was that it pointed to a spot in the middle of a park. “Oh well, it must be a nice office,” I thought to myself.

I’m checking addresses, checking addresses, I’m in the right area, but there’s no building in the park, no building next to the park, and no building ANYWHERE NEAR the park with that address on it. It’s basically a residential area with no businesses anywhere to be seen. I’m freaking out. Where is this place?

It occurred to me then, that I might have the wrong address.

Superman at a telephone boothThe point of this story is near. I don’t own a cell phone, but ever since I was young, I always carry change with me in case such a situation occurs where I need to find a pay phone to make a call. I don’t know if I’m the first to realize this, but there’s NO PAY PHONES ANYMORE. With the rise of cell phones and their sheer mass popularity, nobody needs pay phones anymore, so telephone companies don’t maintain them.

I drove up and down this St. Mary’s Street where there’s more businesses and signs of life, but no pay phones in sight.

Thus - the point emerges: The market is saturated with cell phones, PDAs, mobile communication etc. The amazing punk band Randy wrote a song about how people today are Addicts of Communication. How true this is. Many people can’t wait in line at the grocery store without pulling out their phone for a quick call or text message. I’ve noticed also that more and more people think it’s not rude to talk through the entire check-out process, just passing their VISA to the cashier when he/she slightly opens their mouth and motions for payment. It’s rude, but people are addicted.

Feeding their addictions are the cell phone and PDA manufacturers. Much like computers, a cell phone or PDA is obsolete as soon as it’s taken off the shelf. Life cycles of these mobile wonders of technology are getting shorter and shorter and people are just waiting for their contracts to run out so they can get a new contract and product because all their friends have a better shinier one.

The newer shinier one currently: Apple’s iPhone. Everyone wants one, and will stop at nothing to get one. Sure, it’s a little pricier than most of the competition, but man will it make my friends jealous! That is - until one of the competitors which releases a new phone every month makes a slicker one.

Apple makes products that last years, are quality products, and can usually be sold for almost as much as you paid for it. An Apple cell phone will not be any of these things. It will not last years, even if the contract does, it might be a quality product, but just imagine the damage scratching that touch-screen will cause, and lastly, by the time you want to sell it, it will be so outdated you’ll just want to get rid of it.

Will the iPhone be Apple’s biggest mistake? Only time will tell. Mr. Jobs has usually hit home runs with his products, but this is a very risky move, and one that other cell phone manufactureres are definitely watching closely.