Call it Passion or Craze..

1. Mitsubishi Trium: This was my very first Mobile. Gifted to my parents by my maternal uncle and they didn’t really feel any need for using it. Only thing they did was to put a prepaid sim and we had a mobile number to say.
I used to take it to my super strict college during my graduation years, hidden in my bag and in a silent mode.. And to make any urgent phone calls would go to the washroom and speak as low as possible. The phone was heavy with an antenna and initially I didn’t know what features it had and I don’t remember if I ever bothered to explore it.. Looks weren’t great but yes felt proud to roam around saying I have a mobile phone..
2. Nokia 3315: After M-trium, my eye was on a better phone. Since I wasn’t earning then.. I asked dad with a lot of background study for convincing answers, whether I could get a Nokia 3315. That was the beginning for the craze I guess.
And he promised to get me one on my Birthday. I was happy, happy and very happy.. The first buy from over eBay. Had a couple of talks with the dealer if he could work-out a trade-in for the M-Trium, which he finally agreed. The trade-in amount was quite good although we didn’t expect much going by it’s looks..  It was delivered my B’day(2003)
I was in top of the world. Probably the best gift I ever wanted. I was so excited that I didn’t leave any feature of the phone unchecked.. From ringtones to sms templates etc.. Low on words to express the happiness it gave.. Soon after it arrived I also changed the body case to a Reddish Pink which came along in the kit. I just loved the color.. After Nokia 3315 I patiently waited to complete my Masters and then get one on my own.
During this period my sis also got a Nokia 3315. So now Murali family had two mobiles..
3. Nokia 6100: I had completed my Masters and was placed in a good Organization. Now I yearned for a colour phone and the search had already begun. With permission from my parents to get something from my First Salary I went ahead and bought Nokia 6100. This had 1.3 MP camera, FM, GPRS and most of all it was a colour phone.. Sleek and small.. My first gadget that I bought.. I realized this craze is not gonna end soon..
4. Nokia 6600: Not sure how long Nokia 6100 lasted probably some 6 months. Now I had changed my job and was in the field of Mobile Development. Felt like I was destined to be in this field looking at my increasing craze for mobiles and gadgets. So now it goes without saying I had to get my next mobile which was Nokia 6600.. I wasn’t so impressed with the design but there were good reviews of the phone.
5. Nokia 6101: 2-3 months down the line I was bored with Nokia 6600 and bought Nokia 6101. Bored of candy bar phones I wanted to use a clamshell. Performance and features weren’t as good as 6600 but for the sake of clamshell I bought it.. This one lasted for another 3-4 months..

6. Motorola w650: This phone was the next buy from eBay. It was a very cute and small phone, would be well hidden in our fist. This purchase was Mom’s gift to Dad. But he wasn’t keen on using it in the fear that he would lose it. So it came over to me.. I used for a while then sis.. Somehow we weren’t very comfortable with the phone. Dad started using it after lot of compulsion and like his fear came true it got lost.. He was so tensed he stopped using a mobile phone.

7. Nokia 6670: This phone had spent the shortest time with me. I didn’t do much of curious exploring on the phone and it gave way to the next one.
8. Nokia N70: N70 lasted almost for a year and half. I had bought this phone as soon as I joined Web18. The phone bills were taken care-of, the best thing any mobile developer would want.. Fully functional with edge and development tests on the go. This phone was at it’s best everytime. The very point that my colleague had a N71 triggered the thought of owning NSeries phones.. And this was the start..
9. Nokia N73: Past 1.5 yrs in Web18. With the line of events happening in my life like marriage, moving to a new house, quitting the current job etc..  I moved over to Nokia N73. This time since there was one more person in my life.. His go-ahead nod was also required. It was important for me that he knows about this crazy passion of mine for gadgets..
From the day I joined Web18 and companies there on, every mobile of mine has passed through various ordeals.. They were put to use in the best possible way.
N73 has a very good camera. This phone came to our rescue when our digital camera conked off right at the beginning of our honeymoon trip. And also a lovely music phone.. Rest of the features were as good as any other NSeries phones then..
10. HTC Touch: This was the first phone I bought after marriage. Since my hubby isn’t much into gadget. I had to persuade and convince before I bought this. The first and last windows phone I ever owned.. I wasn’t very comfortable with the screen sensitivity. Soon after I bought this phone I received some freelancing offers. Realized this phone wouldn’t be of much help unless I developed a touch screen version of every app. So had to necessarily move over to the next one.
11. Nokia N81: I bought this phone right after HTC Touch. This one was classy. A little heavy but had great looks.. The music version had inbuilt 8GB HD. Put it to use for some of my work. On a trip to my native place, I exchanged this phone with my maternal uncle for a Nokia E63.
12. Nokia E63: Used this phone for quite some time and is till with me.. The phone which made me acquainted with QWERTY keyboards. Sleek and smart phone.. Camera ain’t that good. But rarely do I use phone cameras to take photos.
Android was the next OS I had laid my hands on at work. And this firm had its own set of handsets for the development tests..  So I could actually get to try the phones before I thought about the next buy.
13. HTC Hero: One of the best phones in 2009 was HTC Hero with Android 1.6 which was later updated to 2.1. No updates after 2.1.  Android had just set it in and I was already pulled into it. I wasn’t so much of an Apple fan although I use one now. But Android got me my bread and butter So no pushing it aside.. Well this phone was my hubby’s gift for our wedding anniversary from Singapore.. One could say as a compensation for the number of long trips he made to Singapore then.. Little did we know we would land here in an year’s time.. This phone’s still with me and recently upgraded it to 2.3. Yep, Installed a Custom ROM(CyanogenMod 7). Initially was  a bit nervous, but the entire process of Rooting and Flashing a new ROM was smooth and exciting.
14: iPhone 4: We had just landed in Singapore and everywhere I see is Apple Products.. Every person owns an iPhone. I was so pissed off and irritated that I also ended up owning an iPhone 4 em.. call it jealousy :P . But people, I am still an Android fan. iPhone is just for the sake of owning one.. I agree it makes people completely dependent. And giving a break is absolutely important or else it becomes difficult to make a shift..
Although Mom & Dad & now my Hubby ask me to keep a cap on my purchase for mobiles.. It’s been irresistible and bought them by convincing all of them by putting across the specs, feature or whatever be it..
I have always loved and miss my phones with every purchase. My most loved ones were 3315, N70, N73 and the three phones that I still have. The phones I still own are HTC Hero, E63 and iPhone 4.
Call it passion or craze, for the gadgets especially mobiles still holds strong..Though now I have learnt to patiently await with all the excitement for the next one …