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Studies

by Joseph Weisenthal

Fri, Aug 4th 2006 1:40pm





Surprise: Widely Owned Cell Phones Are Most Likely To Be Stolen

from the makes-sense dept

Keeping a list of the most stolen cars makes a lot of sense. It lets consumers know which ones they might want to avoid, or at least buy a LoJack for. But keeping a list of the most stolen phones doesn't do a whole lot of good. All phones are equally hard to steal, so you'd expect a tally of the phones most likely to be stolen to pretty much reflect their popularity. So it's not surprising that a new study from England says that Nokias are the most stolen phone, since, well, Nokia has the largest market share. The Motorola RAZR comes in high, but again, it's a popular phone. If people switched away from Nokias after this news, and instead started buying LGs, in mass, then in all likelihood, LGs would shoot to the top of the most-stolen charts, as well. The director of the study, eager to defend its relevence said, "The top 10 charts are a step in the right direction though, because they empower consumers with information, which should stimulate anti-crime design efforts by the mobile phone industry." Anti-crime designs like what? A phone that will deliver an electric shock if it doesn't recognize the pulse of the hand that holds it? A macephone? Actually, that might sell pretty well.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  
    identicon
    Whatever he said, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 1:51pm

    So add a toothbrush as a feature, no one will steal it then.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 1:55pm

    put your cell phone on a leash, if someone tries to steal your phone, swing it around and hit him in the head with the phone ( like the Sprint commercials)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:40pm

    Go back to the oldschool briefcase phones.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Xcetron, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:46pm

    Set it on password, if some one enters the wrong password 3 times the phone automatically self destruct. Or melt down the internal circuits. That'll show them to steal the phone next time.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:46pm

    I can picture it now, anti-theft devices like those on cars that will actually tell you to back away, only with an 'effective' security measure implemented as well... "warning, warning, intruder alert, intruder alert... commencing inverse iron maiden protocol"... hopefully your pockets aren't too deep :x

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    Don't Steal My Phone

    identicon
    linville79, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:47pm

    Just carry a gun...no theif will trade his life for a cell phone.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Einstein, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:47pm

    I think one should place an explosive device that can be triggered by the owner in order to blow the thiefs head off - it happens at the moment but i cant see why it hasnt rly taken off. that would be a blast.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  

    Re: Don't Steal My Phone

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:49pm

    hahahha, very good soluton linville79

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    Habib, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:49pm

    I think one should place an explosive device that can be triggered by the owner in order to blow the thiefs head off - it happens at the moment but i cant see why it hasnt rly taken off. that would be a blast.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 2:50pm

    with new phones having GPS locators, find out where the SOB is, and raid his house, take your phone, and a couple of other things for "interest"

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  

    pair it up

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 3:01pm

    How about a cell phone that won't work without its paired bluetooth headset? They'd steal it anyway but at least you could get a chuckle knowing that they won't be able to figure out how to turn it on.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  

    Trunk Monkey

    identicon
    Anon, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 3:46pm

    How about a portible trunk monkey style anti-theft device?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  13.  
    identicon
    Nek, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 3:53pm

    What's wrong with biometrics? A small thumb print scanner on the side of the phone would work great.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  

    Won't Steal Mine....

    identicon
    Dam, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 4:07pm

    I just leave all my skin oils and ear wax on it.....

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 4:33pm

    i dont get it... isn't this logic?

    If the phone model is very popular, then there are more of them out in the public (than other models), which means more likely when theives steal, they would encounter such phones to steal. Therefore, more of the stolen ones would be of that popular phone model.

    obviously i generalized, but it's pretty logical to me.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  

    Re:

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 4:35pm

    i'm the guy that just posted.

    okay, i basically restated what the article said. no surprise~

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  

    Why steal a cell phone?

    identicon
    William C Bonner, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 4:37pm

    Why would anyone want to steal a cell phone these days? Cell phones don't cost consumers that much. Telephone air time is fairly cheap. A stolen phone can be reported and rendered useless, or at least useless without registering for new service, or putting in a new SIM.

    I have not read the article, but I could write an article pointing out that the most popular cell phones are the most likely to be lost based on simple statistics.

    The most frustrating thing with losing a cell phone is deciding what to replace it with, and then getting it all synced back up with the correct address book.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  18.  

    ZAP!

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 4:56pm

    A phone that will deliver an electric shock if it doesn't recognize the pulse of the hand that holds it?

    that'd be brilliant, actually. except if you gave your friend or relative the phone to use, they'd get a bit of a jolt, which probably wouldn't bode too well for them. =

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  19.  
    identicon
    phil, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 5:51pm

    just sell them for $20 bucks or less
    then nobody would even bother to steal one

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  20.  
    identicon
    bab, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 6:18pm

    When phone designers finds a way to allow stolen phone to dial or text the original owner or/and the police number thereby given a clue as to the 'new owner' that will be ingineous.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  21.  
    icon
    rijit (profile), Aug 4th, 2006 @ 10:47pm

    LOL! This reminds me of that stupid cell phone commercial, the first guy claims the cell phone has an anti theft device. So the other guy says let me see it. So the first guy nails him in the head with the phone from across the room.

    Funny commercial but the actual advertisement for it sucked, I can't remember which company did the commercial.

    I like the idea of a tazer phone, detects your life rythem and if the wrong person is scanned: Zap!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  22.  

    Stay away from my Chocolate...

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 5th, 2006 @ 11:31am

    it is only an mp3 player.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  23.  
    identicon
    razr freek, Aug 5th, 2006 @ 2:36pm

    why dont they have pockets that dont open unless the right finger print is detected

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  24.  
    identicon
    Xcetron, Aug 6th, 2006 @ 11:21pm

    I think the best way would be to have some kind of security system that requires a key of somesort to open/powerup/access the phone, such as having a security card and slide it through a reader on the phone will power it up and that all the cards are different so youd have to steal the card as well if you want to use the phone.


    Just a thought.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  25.  

    Uhm, Joe...

    identicon
    discojohnson, Aug 7th, 2006 @ 6:38am

    your reasoning for this list being pointless would then also apply to the automobil listing. yes, civics are stolen so damn much because they're popular and the resell value is there. THE SAME APPLIES FOR A PHONE. walking off with a phone you see laying down is generally a lot easier then stealing a car...any good pick-pocket can gank one...so publishing a list of top 10s to walk away with makes sense as it'd make consumers aware that someone else will really want theirs, so take care of it (funny, just like a popular car). anti-crime bits have very llittle to do with this and i'm not sure why suddenly the mobile phone manufacturers should somehow make a theft deterrent on the devices

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  26.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Oct 8th, 2007 @ 6:57am

    khoui056ionu0569u056ou75lkuod9u096iuoikr6ly55yety

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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