These phone booths take cellphones

When I was a kid the church I attended installed baby booths. These were soundproof (almost) rooms where parents could take their screaming babies so as not to disrupt the service. These booths were considered innovative. I never saw such booths again, but as a lapsed Catholic I guess I might have missed them.

Salemi Industries, Inc., has introduced CellZone, which is a cellphone phone booth. Restaurants, libraries (and perhaps churches) are the target market for the CellZone product, which functions as a phone booth for those rare cell phone users sensitive to having their conversations overheard.

This concept is not new. C.P. Booth, L.L.C. has been marketing such products for some time. It was a C.P. Booth that was somewhat famously installed at Manhattan’s Biltmore Room in 2004.

And our friends over at the Half Bakery proposed Cell Phone Booths back in 2003. (On a different tack, check out their more recent “I’m not crazy” idea.)

CellZone strikes me as evidence that venture capitalists are burning money just like the old days. Costing up to $3,500 a pop and with no obvious way for buyers to recoup their investment I find it hard to imagine this product being installed as anything more than a novelty.

I believe the concept fails on merits, too: Instead of insulating the cell phone user from their surroundings these booths seem like they would draw more attention to the talker.

Read more at Boston.com
Read more at USA Today