Japan mobile handset cornucopia - the paradox of choice

Choices, choices, choices:

via: TokyoMango: Brian's Cellphone Orgy Video

Paradox of Choice (more is less):



source: TED Talk - Barry Schwartz

My choice (less is more - not Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but Robert Browning!):


This phone is marketed to geriatrics. It has no LCD screen, no email, no GPS, no downloadable java apps, no choice of ringtones, no call screening/blocking, no answering/recording function, no calculator, no calendar, no network voicemail, no nothing...you name it, it doesn't have it.

What it does have is huge buttons, an on/off switch and the choice of loud (actually, earsplitting for those occasions when I'm not using my hearing aid) or medium ring (louder than your alarm clock) or no ring with vibration. It also allows one to invite the grandkids over to program the three push-to-call buttons. It's much simpler than the controller for my airconditioner, and as a result I can actually use the thing with some degree of confidence. NTT DoCoMo has a similar model, and with number portability in effect since October, I may go see if that one is even more idiot-proof. (More seriously, the layout is uber-logical and has small braille-like symbolic protrusions to allow the blind or blind-drunk to know where their not-visible thumb is and what would happen if they were to push it down on the adjacent button.)

I've seen Volkswagens with bumper stickers saying "Don't laugh, my other car is a Rolls-Royce." I need something along those lines too. Although "laugh" doesn't quite capture the correct nuance. I'm considering, "Please cease the howls of derision, my other handset is so cutting-edge you couldn't figure it out either."

also:
* Jean Snow on the Willcom R9
* Google Tech Talk - Barry Swartz, Paradox of Choice