World’s best cell phone, according to Krakow
Gary Krakow from MSNBC is impressed with Motorola’s C116 phone only to find out that that the phone is not available in the US. The reason? “A very, very basic GSM handset that handles incoming and outgoing calls as well as SMS messages, the C116 is sold all over the world — except for the United States. It’s not sold here because it’s too cheap!” The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don’t like to tie themselves into monthly contracts, and with little value proposition presents little interest to US wireless operators.
What’s more interesting, is how simplicity in the cell phone combined with the clarity of voice is supposedly the only featureset that interests an experienced reviewer. Everybody seems to like the concept of convergence, but few people ever mastered operating 4-in-1 copier-scanner-fax-printer, let alone phone-PDA-photostorage-music player.