'Razr's price has been bandied about at as much as $1,200, but Cingular is offering the phone for $499 with a two-year contract." - - Crain's Chicago Business, Nov. 22, 2004.
"Biggest cell phone fashion statement: The Cingular Motorola Razr V3 in black . . . $24.99." -- Internet ad, June 28, 2006.
Let's go back to the 1970s -- about 1974, if memory serves.
I was with my mom in the electronics section of a Sears in the south suburbs -- and there it was.
The magic machine.
"I've heard about these!" I said. (Well, it might have been, "Hey, I've heard about these!" I don't have my notes from that day.)
"They're tape recorders -- not for music, for movies and TV!"
We inspected the boxy device. It had a slot for "videocassette" tapes, and rows of colorful buttons.
It also had a price tag: $1,999.99.
Not that we would be thinking about buying such a luxury item. It was just exciting to see that it existed in the real world, not just in magazines and on TV specials about the "World of Tomorrow."
From a 1972 newspaper article I dug up: "Like to tape TV programs off the air for a video library? Or rent a feature movie recorded on a video cartridge?
"The [Cartrivision] combination receiver/recorder/playback unit is Montgomery Ward's Airline system. . . . The price of the set shown [is about $1,600]. . . .
"An optional black-and-white TV camera for making home video- tape movies [is $250]. Blank tapes are about $12 for 15 minutes, $24 for one hour. . . . You can rent feature movies for $3-7. . . ."
(Remember, those are 1972 prices. At today's rates, the machine would cost $7,300, and a movie would rent for $14-$32.)
This was an even more exciting techno-development than Aqua cars, jet packs, Tang or Space Food Sticks. This was the future.
Maybe someday they'd even make an affordable video recording machine for the masses.
WHEN THE CUTTING EDGE DULLS
A mere 30 years later, the videotape and videocassette recorder are relics. These days it's all about DVD or Hi-Def DVD -- until the next big thing comes along, and then all your old DVDs will be boxed up and stored in the garage.
You remember when DVDs were cutting edge, don't you? Like back in the late 1990s?
The first DVD players retailed for $600-$1,000 in 1997. Now you can get a decent DVD player for under a hundred bucks.
Techno-gadgets have ever- shorter lifespans. For gizmo-crazed, trend-conscious, superficial showoffs like me, it's just getting silly.
How I pined for a Motorola Razr phone back in the day. (That day was Oct. 15, 2004.) I'd been reading about it for months, and I couldn't wait to plunk down hundreds of dollars for the ultra-thin, ultra-hip device. Would it be an actual improvement on the previous dozen or so phones I'd owned? Maybe, maybe not -- but who cared? It was going to slip oh-so-smoothly into my jacket pocket. It was going to be cool.
The first time I set my new, silver Razr down on a bar, the woman next to me -- a complete stranger -- snatched it and started playing with it without even asking. It was that mesmerizing.
From that Crain's Chicago Business article of November 2004:
"John Jackson hates to take out his Motorola Razr V3 cellular telephone in public. 'I get harassed,' says Mr. Jackson, a senior analyst for the Yankee Group. Passersby ask questions. . . .
"If the [Motorola] marketing campaign delivers, it is also an opportunity to prove that a cell phone can retail for around $700 and become as much of a status symbol as a watch or even a car. . . ."
Forbes chimed in with a "Gadgets We Love" article that proclaimed, "The new Motorola Razr V3 is such a smack-me-gorgeous sliver of technolust that you want to keep it to your ear all the time and show it off, telegraphing how indescribably hip-by- association you are to own it."
And here I thought "Smack Me Gorgeous Sliver" was just a pro wrestler.
SPARE SOME CHANGE, NO NOT YOU
When my silver Razr went missing at the Toronto Film Festival (it was so thin and light, I didn't even notice it had fallen out of my jacket pocket until after I had exited the cab), I replaced it with the even hipper black Razr. Shortly after that, you'd see women -- and men who were extremely comfortable with their sexuality -- sporting the pink Razr. Oooh.
The price kept plummeting, and the Razr became commonplace. Soon they'll be handing them out for free with tanks of gas. Any day now, I expect to see a homeless guy yapping on his Razr.
In less than two years, the Razr has gone from cutting edge to ho- hum. It's a great phone, but what does that have to do with anything? The hipsters of the world are moving on to the Slver (what does Motorola have against vowels?) and other models.
Me? I'm getting NEC's new folding phone, which is even thinner than the Razr. It's available only in Hong Kong and it won't actually work here, but so what?
It looks so cool.
e-mail: rroeper@suntimes.com
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