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

from the makes-sense dept

Fri, Aug 4th 2006 1:40pm — Joseph Weisenthal

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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

26 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

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

So add a toothbrush as a feature, no one will steal it then.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 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)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 2:40pm

Go back to the oldschool briefcase phones.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Xcetron, 4 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
linville79, 4 Aug 2006 @ 2:47pm

Don't Steal My Phone
Just carry a gun...no theif will trade his life for a cell phone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 2:49pm
  
  Re: Don't Steal My Phone
  hahahha, very good soluton linville79
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Einstein, 4 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Habib, 4 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 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"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 3:01pm

pair it up
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anon, 4 Aug 2006 @ 3:46pm

Trunk Monkey
How about a portible trunk monkey style anti-theft device?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nek, 4 Aug 2006 @ 3:53pm

What's wrong with biometrics? A small thumb print scanner on the side of the phone would work great.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dam, 4 Aug 2006 @ 4:07pm

Won't Steal Mine....
I just leave all my skin oils and ear wax on it.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 4:35pm
  
  Re:
  i'm the guy that just posted.
  
  okay, i basically restated what the article said. no surprise~
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
William C Bonner, 4 Aug 2006 @ 4:37pm

Why steal a cell phone?
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Aug 2006 @ 4:56pm

ZAP!
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. =
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
phil, 4 Aug 2006 @ 5:51pm

just sell them for $20 bucks or less
then nobody would even bother to steal one
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bab, 4 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
rijit (profile), 4 Aug 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!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2006 @ 11:31am

Stay away from my Chocolate...
it is only an mp3 player.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
razr freek, 5 Aug 2006 @ 2:36pm

why dont they have pockets that dont open unless the right finger print is detected
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Xcetron, 6 Aug 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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
discojohnson, 7 Aug 2006 @ 6:38am

Uhm, Joe...
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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2007 @ 6:57am

khoui056ionu0569u056ou75lkuod9u096iuoikr6ly55yety
[ link to this | view in chronology ]