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Friday, July 13, 2007
America finally wakes up to cell phones
South Africa was at one point the most rapid adopter of GSM cell phone technology on the planet. Why? Because Telkom is slow, expensive, and reserved for whites. I paid R17000 (US$ 5000) in 1993 for my first Siemens C30 carphone (it was the size of a handbag) and later changed over to a GSM cellphone when Vodacom was launched. They swopped my car phone for a Motorola TAC that was selling for R1800. When I was mugged in 1995 I replaced it with a Nokia phone, and all my subsequent Nokias have worked well. Now Apple is trying to change the face of cell phones. Pity they are so restrictive, but I guess the US market needs to be shaken up first.
South Africa was at one point the most rapid adopter of GSM cell phone technology on the planet. Why? Because Telkom is slow, expensive, and reserved for whites. I paid R17000 (US$ 5000) in 1993 for my first Siemens C30 carphone (it was the size of a handbag) and later changed over to a GSM cellphone when Vodacom was launched. They swopped my car phone for a Motorola TAC that was selling for R1800. When I was mugged in 1995 I replaced it with a Nokia phone, and all my subsequent Nokias have worked well.
Now Apple is trying to change the face of cell phones. Pity they are so restrictive, but I guess the US market needs to be shaken up first.
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