Abstract
The cell-phone equipment rate in the UK has reached the amazing level of 112% (i.e.: on average over one cell-phone per inhabitant). With this rate, the UK sets a European record, yet the average rate on the continent is above 75% (France: 86%). These figures are the result of the mobile phone market's skyrocketing for the past 5 years. But what is actually most striking about this market is not the evolution of its volume as much as its qualitative development. Indeed, the innovation cycle for cell-phones has been shortening and is nowadays close to three months. The protagonists of this innovation process are the cell-phone manufacturers and the phone operators. If anyone could have foreseen that such a technological market was going to be the field for tremendous innovations, only the happy few might have foreshadowed the creativity that both constructors and operators showed when they integrated gadgets such as cameras or services such as the internet in ever so tiny cell-phones.
