THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 20, 1996 TAG: 9605180081
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: TECH TRACK
GADGETS AND GIZMOS FOR THE NEXT CENTURY
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
WHEN THE ENVELOPE from GTE Mobilnet landed on my desk, I almost tossed it without looking inside.
Which would have been an expensive mistake. Upon opening it, the future of cellular telephones was sitting in the palm of my hand.
The smallest, lightest phone in the world, Motorola's StarTAC weighs barely over 3 ounces, takes up the equivalent of 5 cubic inches and wholesales for $1,000.
But in the wacky world of cellular, where the aim seems to be to lose as much money as possible selling phones in hopes of being able to make it up in service charges later, you can buy StarTAC retail for as little as $800.
Dozens of Hampton Roads technology-status climbers already have.
``Why?'' is an awfully good question. ``My $10 phone works just as well as that phone,'' confides one salesman for 360 Communications, which is selling StarTAC locally along with GTE Mobilnet.
Still, what high-flying executive or executive wanna-be can resist the temptation to flash this little gizmo at the office party or out on the interstate?
To be sure, the StarTAC is neat. It can operate up to four hours of talk time, alert you to a call by vibrating instead of ringing, and scroll you through personal phone directories via a ``smart button'' key on its side.
I tested the phone. (Yes, I returned it.) Its audio quality sounded as good as my little but now-comparably clunky cell phone that I bought about six months ago.
For the truly techno-nerdly, StarTAC can clip to a shirt pocket comfortably alongside any collection of ballpoints. And it's even data-ready, which means you can, with the right accessories, use it to send and receive faxes, e-mail and data files.
Motorola has been heavily advertising the new phone in the last few weeks, but isn't eager to share its secrets with reporters. My request for an interview with the StarTAC's lead design engineer was met with this response by a PR rep: ``We don't let our engineers talk to reporters. They might say something they shouldn't.''
Let me guess. Something like this, maybe: ``Wait a year before you buy it. It'll cost $300 less by then.'' MEMO: To our readers: With the publication of this column, ``Tech Track'' will
take a hiatus from the Daily Break. It might return in a different form
in the future. Readers with comments about the column are invited to
contact Daily Break editor Eric Sundquist at 446-2977 or SUNF@INFI.NET.
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
CANDICE C. CUSIC
The Virginian-Pilot
Motorola's StarTAC - the smallest phone in the world - sells for as
little as $800.
by CNB