Do people really buy cell phones to play music?

[Evo]

I keep seeing all of these cell phone ads that only talk about playing music, as if that is the only reason to buy one. I thought you were supposed to talk on them.

What do you buy a cell phone for?

 

[Cyrus]

Mostly a clock.

 

[Evo]

Mostly a clock.

Yeah, use it as a clock.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I just thought it would be cool to have that big crowd of people following me around, like in the commercials. But they hang out and eat all my food and they stare at me while I sleep. It's starting to bother me a little.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

The fact that I can replace my ipod + cell phone with just a cell phone is nice. Lots of phones have much more space for songs than my ipod plus better battery life. But in reality, a cell phone is much more expensive if you are just using it to play music than any ipod (meaning no contract, so you pay the no-contract price for the phone), so I can't see it being bought just for playing music.

edit: Hmm I just noticed I used the word 'ipod' everywhere instead of mp3 player... Damn apple marketing! I don't see why everyone buys an ipod (myself included!) over a cheaper mp3 player. I think ipods are over priced, but yet I own one. :-(( But that's a different topic.

 

[Moonbear]

I just thought it would be cool to have that big crowd of people following me around, like in the commercials. But they hang out and eat all my food and they stare at me while I sleep. It's starting to bother me a little.

I have enough trouble remembering to keep my cell phone charged just from making phone calls. I would hate to use up all the battery listening to music, and then need to make an emergency call. I'm still searching for a ring tone that actually rings instead of plays music. I was sitting in my office today grumbling that someone in the lab next to me must be playing the music awfully loudly, then it dawned on me it was my cellphone ringing in my desk drawer. I don't like having one gadget for everything...way too easy to lose everything in one fell swoop if I lost or broke it.

 

[Loren Booda]

I have yet to get a cellphone and am unaware what I am missing regarding one. I appreciate a good stereo but doubt that a cellphone (or even an ipod) would satisfy my audio needs.

 

[JasonRox]

Having a cellphone play music is in fact that smartest thing a cellphone could do.

Whenever I'm at work and it's dead, I never have my MP3 player and my cellphone doesn't play music. All my buddies have cellphones that play music, so they always have there music in the phone. Instead of carrying a phone and MP3 player, you just carry a phone. That easy. Not only that, it has a pretty loud speaker, so when we go to the beach, we just play music just like that.

Smartest thing ever. When I get a new cellphone, I'll probably never see my iPod again. (Cellphones can have up to 4GB of space currently, which is my current iPod.)

 

[JasonRox]

I appreciate a good stereo but doubt that a cellphone (or even an ipod) would satisfy my audio needs.

You'd be surprised. Phones are much higher quality nowadays. I bet you couldn't even tell the different between a cellphone and a MP3 player.

 

[Cyrus]

I saw an Iphone last week, the thing is awesome.

 

[JasonRox]

I saw an Iphone last week, the thing is awesome.

I so want one!

 

[Cyrus]

In my opinion, its worth every penny. An Ipod video costs 300 bucks. This thing is an Ipod video, and a phone. A good phone is around 200 bucks. So the price is fair and the technology is great. Also, you can surf the web.

 

[Cyrus]

AHAHAH die Iphone DIEEEEEE

 

[Smurf]

I just got the cell they give free with your contract. I got turned off of mobile music (i had an ipod) in my second year, just too distracting.

 

[chroot]

I'm something of an entry-level audiophile, and I've honestly never heard a cell phone that plays music with enough fidelity to satisfy me. (This doesn't mean they don't exist -- I just haven't found one.) At the same time, I've never heard a set of earbuds that satisfy me, either, and I'm sure as hell not going to carry around my $250 full-size circumaural headphones with me. I also can't even imagine how grating it must be to listen to music on a tiny cellphone speakerphone -- even the little iHome "stereos" they sell at the Apple store make my want to claw my ears off.

I personally just don't think "portable audio" is high-enough quality to bother at the moment. I have my fantastic headphone rig at work, a fantastic stereo in my car, and a very capable portable stereo at home. I don't even know when I'd want to use a cell phone as a music player. I currently value my cell phone (a RAZR) mainly because it's tiny enough to fit in my pocket. The larger-capacity mp3/cell phones are just too big for me. And there's no way in hell I'm ever using a "holster."

I'm also not the sort to walk around on the city streets with headphones on. It seems somehow... pretentious and isolationist to me.

- Warren

 

[Cyrus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifzdez7FRbk&mode=related&search=

AHAHAHa

 

[Loren Booda]

The heck with cellphones - where can I get that blender?

 

[Cyrus]

http://www.blendtec.com/productDetails.aspx?id=28

its 400 bucks

 

[Smurf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifzdez7FRbk&mode=related&search=

AHAHAHa

Can you hear me now? Totally awesome.

 

[Smurf]

on the same topic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H29jU8Wrs&mode=related&search=

 

[moose]

Mostly a clock.

Yeah seriously. I also text quite a bit.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I wouldn't buy a cell phone if it could transport me to a world of make believe and adventure, but then I detest them and think they are the weapons of Satan (seriously don't get me started ) Frankly- If I want to listen to music I'll just get an Ipod they are excellent.

A mobile phones only value is as a reciever, come the final battle between Good and Evil, Satan will use the phones as a location beacon to round up the slaves for the coming carnage. I saw that in a vision

 

[JasonRox]

I'm also not the sort to walk around on the city streets with headphones on. It seems somehow... pretentious and isolationist to me.

- Warren

No one said you have to.

 

[ank_gl]

What do you buy a cell phone for?

for communicating

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I have yet to get a cellphone and am unaware what I am missing regarding one. I appreciate a good stereo but doubt that a cellphone (or even an ipod) would satisfy my audio needs.

your'e not missing anything, i could tell you that much.

 

[Evo]

The iPhone - Conan O'Brian

 

[JasonRox]

your'e not missing anything, i could tell you that much.

No one is saying you're missing out on something because you don't have a cellphone.

At the same time, we must realize that the cellphone is revolutionizing our social network and our social life is evolving. If you don't have one 5-10 years from now and you're in the new generation, I would say it's relatively believeable that you'll be left behind socially.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

With all due respect I think that is complete and utter bilge. If anything mobile phones actually remove communications most valuable factors, the ability to read body language or gain understanding from intonation, skills that only come with face to face dialogue. Mobile phones actually lead people to talk less in person and more over the phone.

If I don't have a mobile phone in twenty years? I will not have one because I believe they sap your ability to communicate and they are a jump backwards not forwards. And what's more I think I could make a pretty good case that most people have them merely to appear in with the crowd and do not actually need them, they are little more than a fashion statement to be frank.

Au contraire, I believe people with mobiles are slowly removing themselves from real communication, and being left behind socially.

I did say don't get me started, didn't I

 

[chroot]

Schrodinger's Dog:

I do understand (and appreciate) that you'd rather rely on face-to-face communication than communication on a cell phone. I don't think anyone would disagree with this.

However, restricting oneself to face-to-face communication would mean that I'd only be able to maintain friendships with people who live within, say, a fifteen minute drive. I live in a vast metropolitan area, and that would restrict me to only a tiny fraction of it. I tend to be fairly picky with my friends, though, and it would seem unfortunate to rule out the many people I meet who live 30 or 45 minutes away just because of the distance.

I'd also virtually never talk to my family, since they all live some thousands of miles away now.

I don't disagree that there are many drawbacks to the text-message and IM culture we've been developing lately, but I believe that a telephone can greatly enrich your life.

- Warren

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

That's why I have a non mobile telephone I'm only talking about the walkie talkie version, of course I still need a normal phone, I just don't need a mobile

People sitting on trains talking to their wives all the way home, and then what do you say when you get home, nothing you've already said it? What's the point of that? Surely you can just wait?

 

[chroot]

Then I think you're a hypocrite, Schrodinger's Dog. You complain about how cell phones don't allow you to see body language, yet you admit to using a telephone? And you're talking to us on an... internet forum?

I don't even have a land-line, just the cell phone. I don't believe I really use the cell phone any differently than I would use a land-line, so I don't believe it's a tool of satan. It's just a telephone I can take with me.

It sounds like you have an issue with cell-phone culture -- what you percieve to be an abuse of the technology -- not the technology of voice telecommunication itself. In the future, you should just say that instead.

- Warren

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

No a stationary phone and a mobile are two completely different things with different uses by the user. One I can use to keep in contact with people. The other I don't need to use at all. You simply have to accept that most people don't need them as a normal phone will suffice. They are a fashion accessory for most. People say things like I couldn't cope without my mobile phone? And I want to ask why not, you did for x years before they were invented? What changed?

I think you like most mobile users are so in love with mobiles that you missed the point I was trying to make, that in fact you probably know yourself you could easily get by without it but that would mean that you didn't keep in with the in crowd. If your job demanded it I could understand but frankly I don't think most peoples do.

That's the point, for most people they are superfluous to their needs, but most people cannot accept that, they have invested too heavily in them and lost perspective.

 

[chroot]

No a stationary phone and a mobile are two completely different things with different uses by the user.

This is not necessarily true -- at all. This is begging the question, a logical fallacy.

They are a fashion accessory for most.

Most? How can you make such cavalier, sweeping generalizations?

People say things like I couldn't cope without my mobile phone? And I want to ask why not, you did for x years before they were invented? What changed?

I don't know many people who would say this. Are you really trying to use some kind of an anecdote to support your generalization? You seem to be the king of incredibly poor debate tactics right now. How's that for a logical fallacy?

- Warren

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

OK let me ask you personally would you be able to cope without a mobile? I have asked many people and the answers they give are not logical, they are not living lifestyles that require them to be in contact with somebody 24/7. It's a perfectly valid point, one that you seem unwilling to accept but still valid. I'm not in a position to do a census of all mobile users, hell all mobile users wouldn't accept the results anyway, if you like using them fine, but don't convince yourselves they are essential when they aren't, all I'm saying, they are luxury items, unlike a phone for me which is essential. I get job offers by phone, my future career depends on one, I can live without a mobile and do easilly.

 

[chroot]

I think you like most mobile users are so in love with mobiles that you missed the point I was trying to make, that in fact you probably know yourself you could easily get by without it but that would mean that you didn't keep in with the in crowd. If your job demanded it I could understand but frankly I don't think most peoples do.

And now you're putting words in my mouth? Seriously, your debate skills are on par with a class of fifth graders.

I don't consider myself "in love with" my cell phone. It's the smallest and simplest one I could buy. I freely admit that I could easily get by without it, but why should I? I don't really consider myself part of the "in crowd," and I certainly didn't buy a cell phone to make a fashion statement. It spends 99% of its life buried in my pocket with a generous pile of lint.

That's the point, for most people they are superfluous to their needs, but most people cannot accept that, they have invested too heavily in them and lost perspective.

If there's anyone who's lost perspective, it's you. Just look at the silly, half-formed arguments you're tossing at me. I feel like a bear catching salmon as they jump out of the water.

By the way, the Amish would make a very similar argument about your use of your land-line. Surely one telephone is enough for a whole village's emergency needs, yes?

- Warren