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Consider carrying around a single device that replaced your cell phone, PDA, iPod, GPS device, digital camera and digital video recorder. Now consider that a nationwide provider would offer unlimited phone and data services for $50-70 a month. Wouldn’t you hop on the train? All of these technologies are readily accessible and are often found sprinkled around on various phones and service plans. However, even if you find a phone that satisfies you, like the Treo 700w, you’re going to spend nearly $100 a month to use it. A top quality provider like Verizon will charge at least $50 a month for phone service and anywhere from $20 to $50 extra for data services. Nobody wants to spend $100 a month to use their phone for voice and data services.

No company seems to step up and offer a phone and plan like what I mentioned above. Yet everyone wants to complain about the technology adoption rates for Americans. Hello technology providers, this is middle America, we’d be happy to step into next generation technology if you’d provide it to us like our far eastern neighbors you always compare us to. In the far east a consumer can get high speed Internet access for next to nothing, where in America you’re going to spend $50 a month for cable Internet with 3 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds not even worth mentioning. In the far east we’re talking about high speed, in the neighborhood of 10 Mbps and higher. The reason companies say they don’t offer these services at similar prices is that Americans are slow adopters. However, I believe it’s because of the density of the country. America is far more spread out geographically and companies just can’t afford to send fiber lines out to places in the middle of nothing. This is completely understandable for the people who choose to live out there but you could always offer the quality stuff at reasonable prices to the people in larger cities. The companies always fail to mention that the US has the largest number of people per capita online.

Countries like South Korea and Japan are so far better connected than we are. New cellular technologies begin there and spread to the US and Europe months and even years later. I just want to be as connected as I can be. I think Americans in larger cities would jump on a device that replaces everything they use today that is affordable on a monthly basis. Now sure, for business people this isn’t a huge deal and you can find them walking around downtown completely addicted to their Blackberries. My concern is for everyone else, all of the non-managerial business types, the college students, the high school kids even. Why hasn’t a company like Verizon jumped in and dominated this yet to be tapped market?