Do Europeans Want Treos?

 (via Brighthand)

Mr. Mace says:

Go to lunch or dinner in any country in Europe, and when everyone sits down they’ll take out their mobile phones and put them on the table.

Then everyone at the table surreptitiously checks out everyone else’s phone. There’s a subtle hierarchy of status associated with which phone you carry. I haven’t decoded all of it yet, but definitely you get some extra status for having what’s perceived to be a stylish phone. Brand also plays a role, although I think that varies from country to country.

I’ve been told by several European friends that slapping down a Treo on the table gets you labeled as a geek. And not a nice geek in the American sense (visionary and probably rich), but geek in the bad sense (socially misfit and physically underdeveloped). The keyboard, which American users tend to regard as a badge of business power and importance, comes across as pathetically computer-obsessed to a lot of folks in Europe. 

I saw this post over at brighthand and it got me thinking … does anyone else see phones as a status symbol? I guess I never really thought about it, and the more I do I guess I see phones as a symbol for who and where you are in life. My 8125 definitely gets me labeled as geek (and the bad european version suits me just fine since computers pay the mortgage) … but I think here in the US if you aren’t carrying a Razor or something close to it I definitely see you as phone impared.

 So… do you see phones as a status symbol? If so, to what end ?