Is the age of the 2+ handset normob finally with us?

I’ve been carrying 2+ handsets with me for some time. For years, actually, come to think about it. It seems like I’ve always had a ‘real phone’ and a Blackberry of some sort. Even when I carried the E61 or E61i, I still carried a normal handset (usually the N95).

Sitting in Starbucks on Oxford Street today I spotted the chap above to the left. It wasn’t difficult. His handset was interrupting my ability to think every five minutes with the most annoyingly loud ringtone. He then spend a good 5 minutes or so trying to describe the route to the cafe from Waterloo Station. Excruciatingly annoying to have to over hear loudly.

What caught my attention were the two handsets out on the table. One was a Prada phone, I think, or a Viewty — and the other was an iPhone.

Fair enough.

Then his friend arrived. He ALSO had two phones. Two really sexy ones — an iPhone and some kind of fancy handset that I couldn’t immediately identify. I also couldn’t help but listen to their nattering as I’d forgotten my noise canceling headphones. They don’t work in mobile. Or anywhere near mobile. In fact I think they might run club nights or something like that.

They were most definitely normob. They weren’t geeks. They were far too well dressed for that 😉

I tried to take a picture by pretending I was shooting the laptop — perhaps they wouldn’t have minded if I’d taken their pictures, come to think of it — I missed the opportunity as they were packing up to leave.

Between the two of them I think they had about two grand’s worth of mobile technology. Add that to the fact they’re clearly normobs and it all adds up to confirm the research and predictions we’ve been hearing for some time about penetration and handsets-per-consumer. This is the first time I’ve seen more than two normob people in one place, in central London, with more than one handset (not excluding Blackberries).

Interesting.