Trawling the Internet to find the latest gadget releases and tech news has actually been something of a chore today, thanks in no small part to the ridiculous amount of overkill the 3G iPhone is receiving.
Shops don’t have any, no surprise there. People have queued for hours to get one, no surprise there. Servers went down due to demand, no…. ok, that one’s a bit of a surprise because the way they were talking was as though they’d only actually made about 12 and a half units available to the general public. Still, away from iPhone.
Unlikely though it sounds, Bic has gone into the disposable pre-charged mobile phone market. Yes, they’ve been the kings of disposable consumer goods for years – they create biros that scratch through paper and razors that scratch through skin, but the concept of buying a Bic disposable mobile is just plain odd.
Having teamed up with Orange France, the phones will be released at the beginning of next month in France for the equivalent of £39. They include a fully charged battery and 60 minutes of talktime as well as the quality assurance that Bic didn’t make them from crappy orange plastic alone. Alcatel actually made the phone on Bic’s behalf.
Disposable mobiles are usually associated with drug dealers and hitmen – something that Bicatel is trying to distance itself from because drug dealers wouldn’t be seen carrying anything that looks like that and hitmen need to blend in not stand out for carrying a lime green or a Bic orange mobile phone.
Happily, once the 60 minutes talk time is all gone you have the choice of throwing it away, although it is only a choice because you can buy more airtime.
The concept is great but the problem is that mobile phones have become so inexpensive that if you take the trip down to your local Tesco or Asda you can pick one up for the same £39 price tag that will actually do things other than talk and text. And you don’t have to take one in those colours either.
