Cell Phone Manufacturers – Staying in Touch

David Berlind, Executive Editor, ZDNet tells "Apple's iPhone to step aside, there's another phone in town called the Helio." [ Watch Video ] [ Helio on Sale! ]

Staying in touch is what cell phones are all about, both in terms of us with our friends, family, and business contacts; and in the sense that the manufacturers are all determined not to let any of the others race away with our custom.

When the digital camera phone appeared on the scene for example, it wasn’t long before the other cell phone manufacturers started to offer models of their own with this feature, not wanting to fall behind when this proved to be a very popular idea.

Small Phones – Big Market

There are many manufacturers of cellular phones because the global market is so immense, with the biggest sector of all being in Europe; and as they compete, they are all improving their features and pricing to attract our attention.

Doing comparisons of the various cell phones will depend very much on what you want from yours, like the latest video phones maybe, and a glossary of cell phone terms can be helpful. But all brands of cell phones have their loyal customers, and others who like to swap around between the various manufacturers.

Of course not all cell phone brands are available with all the cell phone carriers so you may not be able to freely choose from all their ranks when signing up for one of the many free cell phone offers that are available nowadays.

Differentially Speaking

Prepaid plans are another way that some of us have our phone choice limited by compatibility concerns, though with SIM packs, you can convert more GSM phones into prepaid cell plans with some carriers; and the plans themselves can differ too in other ways.

Not only in things like coverage and roaming charges, which can be truly enormous in price range, but still other ways as well.

The minute rates can differ quite a bit with a lesser fee being charged the more airtime you buy, and so can the length of time that you have to use your purchased airtime before it expires and is lost, so bear in mind such matters when choosing your plan if you only intend for low usage of your cell phone.

And some carriers let you buy text messaging in blocks to use at a cheaper price, or for a monthly charge, or a combination of these and anytime minutes for example.

Buying Time

You buy this in blocks using cash at retail stores, or online, or through a toll free number with a credit or check card, and then have a set amount of time for use before you have to buy more.

Special offers can tempt you but these often have conditions attached when you get around to using them, so check the small print on exactly when and how you can use those minutes that you’re given.

But you shouldn’t really be surprised by these advertising shenanigans, after all the carriers are providing a service and they’re in it for the profits after all.

But paying up on the to use our cell phones is usually worth it as long as we watch over our cell phone plans with a modicum of care.

Mix ‘n’ Match

But whatever your carrier, whether, T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless or Voicestream; Tracfone or Sprint PCS; Nextel, Verizon Wireless or Cingular or some others - it’s the manufacturers themselves that usually attract our attention; almost as if the carriers are only a necessary problem; which is very unfair as they do a good job for most of the time.

Recent polls indicated that many users did not even recognize the carriers they were with, but almost all knew what make their cell phones (past and present) were.

So the list of cell phone manufacturers (listed alphabetically), is like a roll of honor in the modern world, the topic of many a conversation and much obsession as the cell phone continues to grow in both social importance and cultural influence.