The inclusion of an Airplane Mode on the 3G iPhone is pretty obvious design choice right? It’s a well implemented feature that is both easy to access and easy to communicate the current state of connectivity to anyone who needs to know. For a phone it is entirely logical that the default state is connected and for the user to make a conscious effort to disconnect. But in the spirit of the future perfect is the 3G iPhone really a phone? And broadening the scope of the question – is there a point in the evolution of mass market mobile phones that cellular connectivity as we understand it today is perceived not as a core feature, but as an optional extra? At what point is ‘Airplane Mode’ relabeled as, as…?

Well, what would it be renamed as?

A new essay titled A Little Switch With a Big Impact exploring convergence, connectivity and dis-connectivity can be found here.