Cellphones: communication tool or fashion statement?

Cellphone accessories used to refer to things like batteries, chargers, hands free kits, faceplates and cases - but times are changing! Users can now customise just about anything about the phone. Phone makers are increasingly exploiting the personalisation trend and are trying to move it beyond simple accessories to the phone itself. For example, Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, introduced user-changeable faceplates more than five years ago. Panasonic Mobile Communications has taken that a step further in Japan, creating flat screw-on faceplates that can easily be duplicated by tracing a template and punching in four holes to hold it down.

But, there is more... elaborate cell phone decorations are coming of age. Increasingly fashion accessories like straps, antenna rings, photo stickers and fake gems are used to reflect the owner's personality. Several examples of collaboration have also been cited where brand name designers collaborate on faceplates, websites give instructions on how to make them, and amateurs create their own versions and sell them online. Seeing a window of opportunity, designer houses such as Hermes International, Gucci and Louis Vuitton have added mobile phone straps to their collections with prices as high as $US300. A Chanel strap costs about $US250, according to an online shopping site.

Using a cell phone as an identity statement has not quite taken off in South Africa (yet). Yes, some are proud of their gadgets that can change colour, have the latest and greatest features (and still use it primarily for making and receiving calls - don't forget SMS!), but it is much less of an obsession than, for example, in the East, where the average Japanese teenager considers a cell phone as a must-have item, used for email, taking photos and keeping track of dates, in addition to the simple phone call.

Since we carry these phones around every day of our lives in an environment that constantly changes - can we blame people for getting bored with their phones two or three months after they've bought it? The reality is that they're simply too expensive to change that frequently. Personalisation therefore, provides a great alternative, as the potential for customising the mobile phone itself is endless.