Introduction

Imagine that you are on your way to a friendís wedding and realize that you have forgotten to bring along your new digital camera.  No worries.  Just pull over at the next gas station or ě7-11î and pick up a ěsingle-useî or disposable camera.  Problem solved.  No big deal, this type of thing happens all the time, right?

Now imagine that you are off for a day trip of hiking or maybe just a drive and you have forgotten your cell phone.  Or maybe you are sending your son or daughter off on their first overnight trip and want them to be able to ěcheck inî.  Problem is that you arenít quite ready to entrust your $400 Motorola flip-phone to an 8 year old.  What can you do?  As of today, you are out of luck.  Your only options are to purchase a full-featured $100 phone or to do without.  But shortly, things are going to change.  Currently, there are several start-ups keenly pursuing business plans to stock gas station and convenience store shelves with various forms of  ědisposableî or ěrecyclableî cell phones.

The offerings are expected to range in cost from $20 to $40 and come ěchargedî with 60 to 120 minutes of airtime, which can be used with any national wireless carrier.  Although the approaches to design vary widely, it can be said that each phone reaches its low cost point relative to a full featured phone by sacrificing traditional features and functionality such as LCD displays, keypads and even the ability to receive in-coming calls.  This may not seem attractive at first glance but the next section ěWhy Disposableî aims to offer further insight into possible market demands.

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