The other day I decided that I'd like a new cell phone. I thought it would be kind of nice to have a pink cell phone. So I went on to the internet and typed in pink cell phone. Well I got 870 thousand plus search results. That was all very nice , there were lots of pink cell phones available from all different brands and different offers, but way too many to look through.

The next day I asked a few ladies at work what kind of cell phones they had and if they even had a cell phone. Interestingly, they all had cell phones. Not one of them knew what kind of cell phone they had without having to pull it out of their purse and look at it. I asked them what they liked about their phones, you know what the biggest response was? That they could change their ring tones! Text messaging was important, only a couple had picture phones, they said it was a nice feature though they didn't use it all that often.

Another interesting thing that came out of this little survey was the accessories each age group had. The 20 something girls in our office all had fun accessories - cute little bags and assorted face plates so they could change the look of their phone to go with their outfit or mood. The 30 to 40 something age group had none or very few accessories! The general consensus was that who has time to dress and accessorize your phone when you can barely dress and accessorize yourself in the morning! Also these women had young children, buying themselves accessories for their phones was not important to them, though they would be happy if someone gave it to them as a gift. The over 45 group kind of agreed with the 30 - 40 year olds. They weren't as likely to go out and buy themselves accessories for their phone, though they did have accessories, they were given to them as gifts from their teenage or older children. What else did they like about their phones - size was a big thing. Women who carried around big purses generally had bigger cell phones because the little ones got lost in their purses and women who carried small purses had small cell phones. No one clipped them to their belt.

Colour was interesting - even though some of the 20 something group had coloured face plates to change their phones colour, the predominant colour of cell phones in all the groups was silver or a dark grey/black, with the exception of one bright green and silver phone in the 30-40 something group. I asked if they would buy a cell phone in a colour and they were pretty well split on that. It seemed to depend on the colour choices, a lot of the ladies didn't want a pink phone. They thought green or blue was nice and that the light silver almost white was classy looking, but it depended on the style of phone and what was available.

When I asked them if they knew all the functions their phone had or if they even used all the functions - they all said no.

Well, of all the women in our office (and I work at a fair sized office) less than half bought their own phone on their own!!! The phone was either a gift from their parents, their boyfriends or their husbands. (I got my cell phone from my mother because my father bought her a new cell phone last Christmas). I asked these ladies if they were happy with the phone they got. In most cases they were. Some of the ladies really liked the high tech features and some of them would have preferred a simpler phone, all in all, they were happy to have a cell phone. Now I think getting a brand new fully loaded cell phone for a Christmas, birthday or anniversary gift would be very, very nice!

This lead me to my last question - would you buy your own cell phone on your own? Yes of course they would and some actually had (though they did admit that their very first cell phone was a gift)!

What conclusion did I come up with? Cell phones are as individual as you are and some people view them as an extension of themselves. They are viewed as a neccessity of life- something you've just got to have whether you need it or not. It was also very clear from the ladies I talked to that cell phone accessories are cool and make great gifts for women of all ages. I also concluded that there are a lot of cell phones out there and it is no wonder if the phone companies are catering to peoples individualism, and they seem to be a dime a dozen, everyone and their dog has one to offer from free to low-low monthly costs. It can be daunting and confusing. I must admit when I was looking on line I didn't know what half the terms meant and why would I want half the features they offer, plus I got really tired of searching from site to site.

Cell phones really are a dime a dozen, so much so that most places are giving them away for free! Well almost free - you need to sign up for a new plan (usually a 2 year commitment) with the carrier that is offering the free phone. For example, if you are going to buy a Verizon Wireless phone, you need to select a plan that supports that phone. Same if you are going to buy an AT&T (Cingular) phone you need to go with an AT&T plan.

Is it a good deal - maybe, if you need a new phone and a new plan. So if you do, choose a plan that suits your needs and you might as well go with a phone that has all the bells and whistles while you're at it, especially if its free with the service plan! Who cares if you never use all the features, at least you'll look good!

After all this I never did buy a new cell phone, but I found a really cute little cell phone holder to keep my phone in!

and a neat little web site that had everything I needed right on it - so you don't have to spend hours searching the internet for the perfect cell phone, cell service plan or accessories for your cell - it's like a one stop shop for cell phones, plans and accessories....... Everything you need in one spot - how cool is that!

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