Michael Maoz

Last night’s flight from Toronto to New York was buffeted by the waning turbulence of Hurricane Ida, but aside from a delay and tumultuous descent, I arrived. It was late, and my aging Blackberry was having a senior moment as I tried to dial the car service to pick me up. Attempts to revive the chipped and graying device failed. I looked for a payphone. Fahgettaboutit.  But glancing around me I saw that just about everyone from the janitor pushing a mop to the cop directing traffic had a cell phone. As I am a friendly guy and fairly innocuous of demeanor (business suit, computer case, carry-on bag) and sociable, I decided to just ask someone if I could make a quick call.

It was a beautiful moment. There was a young goateed man with a blandly cosmopolitan look flipping through his iPhone, waiting for whomever to arrive. He seemed sufficiently bored and unhurried, so I asked him if he would mind if I made a quick local call on his phone.

MURDER! I’M BEING ROBBED! HELP ME!

No, he didn’t say any of those things, but his eyes froze in a mixture of fear and loathing that someone would want to touch his personal device. It is not that he saw me as one enormous H1N1 virus shrouded in a clever disguise. He just could not grasp that anyone, likely anyone except someone very, very intimate with him, would be allowed to touch, to hold, to manipulate his personal device.

Something I’ve been observing around the world came into focus for me. Many will say, “duh.” But I can be slow about a lot of things modern. I hear folks speak of there personal digital assistant by name. I see them cradle the device while they walk, and talk. They lay it aside there plate as they eat, or rest it gently on their lap and gaze at the lambent throb of the display. 

It isn’t a phone; it is an extension of personality. It is customized with skins and apps and aggrated content and feeds. It is a massive investment of time and focus. It is an extension of the path from TiVo and Xbox and WII and Lego. It is Solipsism wrapped in a veneer of social. And it is fascinating.

Let’s communicate…. but don’t touch my device. It will be interesting to unravel the business implications.