A Tyresome Story

I have a Smartphone. I am not sure how smart the phone is, but the manufacturers are very smart.

In a time when nearly everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, if not in their hand, the manufacturers are seeing their market dry up. The solution is simple; new and “exciting” apps that will not work on last years model.

If you want to be “in”, you must throw your old phone out. We are bombarded with advertisements – the very latest smartphone is waiting for you. As Samuel Johnson might once have said, When a man is tired of his Smartphone, he is tired of life.

It will not be long before this marketing technique spreads to other industries.
Your car’s annual test coming up? A visit to the garage shows that the tyres are a little bald. While this can be attractive on a man of this writer’s age, it is not so good for your car.
Change the tyres, please, you say. I’m sorry, sir, you are told, this tyre size is no longer sold, you must change the car. How tiresome!

I should mention, for readers outside the United Kingdom, that tyres are tires, as I never tire of saying.

I can see the day when, visiting my travel agent to book a couple of days in a Golan guesthouse, I am told – I’m sorry sir, the Golan is fully booked. However, we can offer a round-the-world cruise in a luxury liner.

But, the “Smart” phone has been with us for many years. In the early 1960’s a popular TV show featured secret agent 86, better known as Maxwell Smart, who had a phone embedded in his shoe. Probably made it easy to kick the habit.