I remember seeing a few months ago that Motorola had released a cell phone dock that allowed you to integrate your cell phone into your home’s phone system. So you would get home, set your cell in the cradle, and any incoming calls would be routed to any phone hooked into your home’s system. While it was certainly cool, it was restricted to a few select Motorola phone models.
I hadn’t kept up with the idea, and today I was surprised to see that the idea has made it to the mainstream while walking through Circuit City. I saw one model that physically plugged into your cell phone (I can’t remember the brand/model). To accommodate different cell phones the company sold different connection modules, much like buying a universal power supply and then buying the appropriate power tip for your device. While this was a logical approach to the phone compatibility problem, I hold reservations about finding new “modules” as you upgrade your phone, and once the base station is no longer manufactured.
Uniden approached the problem with, what I think, is a much more graceful solution. The base unit for their “ELBT” product has Bluetooth built in. Instead of using a plug to connect to your cell phone, the Unident ELBT uses the hands-free Bluetooth profile. As long as Bluetooth is a supported standard in cell phones (which I hope will be for a while) any new phone you buy should work with the Uniden base station… all without the need to buy a new plug.
Uniden really went all out with the Bluetooth angle though. The handset for the ELBT resembles a cell phone itself, with a clamshell form factor, a large color LCD screen, and Bluetooth that supports connecting to a BT headset. Initially, this seemed a bit pointless to me. If you wanted a phone with a cell phone form factor, and cell phone features (such as the color picture caller ID the handset supports)… then why not skip the base station all together and just carry your cell phone around your house? Thankfully there are a couple other Uniden handsets that you can purchase that will add-on to the cordless base station, so you can get something that more closely resembles a traditional home phone, and looks much less like your cell phone. [tangent]As I looked at all of the cordless phones at the store, I’ve reached the conclusion that cell phones are really hurting cordless phone manufacturers, and they are doing all they can to incorporate cell phone-like features… which seems like the wrong approach to take. Don’t mimic cell phones… offer features that are unique that only a home-phone could do.[/tanget]
As I stood there playing with the product I attempted to identify with a person who may find this system useful. I’m still struggling with this. My first thought is that a family may like to drop the land-line and use a cell connection throughout the whole house. However, I shudder at the idea of being a teenager who has to give my friends my father’s cell phone number to call me. There’s also the fact that when the owner of the cell phone leaves the house, the rest of the family is left without access. Well then this product must be for individuals living alone right? Well then I come back to the fact that you could just carry your cell phone around the house with you. As I thought about it more, I realized that I could actually use a system like this! My cell phone hardly pics up in my house, but gets decent reception in a couple spots. A system like this would let me set my cell phone in a place where it gets optimal reception, and the handset would provide me the freedom to move around the house while making calls.
So that’s the best reason I can come up with to get one of these systems, and I can’t imagine there being a large segment of the population that shares my dilemma. So far I think the product is riding the cool factor of running a cell phone through a home phone system. If you can think of any other situations where a system like this would be useful please feel free to leave a comment!
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