I somewhat hate my cellphone although I'd rather have a cell phone over a television.

....But as early adopters clamor for this latest high-tech status symbol, let us consider the group at the other end of the wireless bell curve: the one in seven Americans who still don't have a cell phone. According to the latest data, the U.S. "adoption rate" for mobile phones stands at 85 percent. That's higher than the percentage of Americans who have DVD players (84 percent), home PCs (80 percent), digital cameras (69 percent) or MP3 players (40 percent), according to the Nielsen Co. "The concept that within my lifetime we'd have the kind of penetration we have today is unimaginable," says Martin Cooper, 79, the former Motorola researcher who invented the portable cell phone in 1973.

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Lots of parents have mixed feelings about kids' having phones, but they're showing up in school backpacks at earlier ages.

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Fear of runaway bills is a hurdle for elderly consumers, too. But more of them (and their adult children) are becoming convinced it's good to have a phone handy for emergencies.

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For consumers without bank accounts or credit scores—the third big group of cell-phone holdouts—prepaid phones have long offered an alternative to traditional wireless contracts.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/145872?GT1=43001

I saw a parent buying their kid an iPhone the other day... kid was probably about 12-13.  I can think of few things as ridiculous as that. I don't trust myself with an iPhone. At that age, I would have destroyed or lost it in about 5 days.