[ 2] Farley, T. “Mobile Telephone History.” Telektronikk 3, no. 4 (2005): 22-34.

[ 3] Ling, R., and J. Donner. Mobile Communications. London: Polity, in press.

phone will develop its own logic. The story of the mobile phone is shorter than that of the automobile or the landline phone. While various forms of mobile radio contact have been possible since the early 1900s [ 2], the popular adoption of the cellular-based mobile telephone system is more recent. To draw somewhat more clearly the parallel with the automobile, until recently mobile communication was the province of either the rich or the technically determined. Mobile phone devices were heavy and required inordinate amounts of power to use. They were quirky, and the coverage was spotty. From the mid-1990s, we have seen the rapid acceptance of the

mobile phone in first the developed and now in the developing world. Indeed, in many parts of the world, mobile telephony is taken for granted as part of daily life. Mobile communication devices are available from dedicated stores, kiosks, in grocery and convenience stores, and over the Internet. They let us chat with friends, send and receive text messages, order goods and services, find the address of a restaurant, take a photo, listen to music, and keep a calendar of appointments. Interestingly, the development of so-called m-marketing challenges some of the dynamics of traditional store- based (and strip-mall-based) marketing.

Individual Addressability One of the most striking aspects of the mobile phone is that it makes each user individually addressable [ 3]. That is, with the mobile phone we call individuals, not locations. This basic characteristic means that we have an alterative way of interacting. We need not take into consideration where our interlocutor is since he or she is always reachable. In addition, the rise of texting means that we do not need to engage in extensive forms of greetings and monopolize one another’s time. If we need only a short bit of information, texting allows us a discrete form of contact. Because of these characteristics—ubiqui-