'Smart phones' & kids

Very soon our kids will be badgering us for smart phones, not just camera phones – if they aren't already. "Experts say smart-phones - mobile devices that can handle phone calls, email, calendaring and Web surfing, among other tasks - are starting to go mainstream as prices come down and the devices become easier to use," the San Jose Mercury News reports. Only 2.2% of US cellphone users use smart phones right now, the Mercury News cites research from Telephia as finding, but the phonemakers "drool at the thought of putting smart-phones into the hands of the estimated 200 million US cell phone users." They're also drooling over the youth market, the New York Times reports, pointing out that almost half of US 13-to-16-year-olds now own cellphones. The industry loves people like Nik Lulla, a 17-year-old in the Philadelphia area who leads the Times piece. Nik "swaps out his cellphones on a whim. He carries a Motorola Razr, an ultrathin metal phone that is so popular he considers it almost passé, and a T-Mobile Sidekick 2, a minicomputer with instant messaging and email features. Sometimes he throws a Motorola V551 and a Nokia 3120 into the mix. [He] uses the Razr because his mother bought it for him — and because it was cool a few months ago — while the Sidekick is 'just for show'." Now Nik probably really wants the just-unveiled Sidekick 3, "aimed at Generation Cool," according to 19-year-old tech reviewer and New York Times intern blogger Bart Stein.