Futurist Mark Pesce sent out a tweet today: “ZOMG, mobile handset sales are falling in Australia!!! That’s unprecedented.”.

My instant reaction was, “Good - so they should be falling. Doesn’t pretty much everyone in Australia have a phone by now?!”.

Considering Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff, we ought to be proud of ourselves for not upgrading our mobile handsets every two years as the mobile phone carriers are only too happy to help us with!

It seems to me that having an older handset ought to be a point of pride. The older the better, I say. Got a ten year old phone? Good for you! Five years? Not bad… Keep going! Cellphone manufacturers ought to receive accolades for developing the products with the longest life-span, counter-acting decades of corporate design teams focused on planned-obsolescence.

I can already see banners on people’s websites advertising the age of their phones as a point of pride. You can easily find out the approximate date of manufacture at this website. Mine’s from late 2006, so it’s got a way to go, yet… What do you think?