Back in the early cell phone days, Vanity numbers were super hot. They are sought after even today. But do they hold any value ?

In case you were wondering what this is all about. A vanity number is how your phone number spells ! It is made up of words or phrases your telephone number spells. For example… 1-800-GOT-JUNK , 1-877-GO-1AND1. Just recently, I memorized the contact details from a bill-board advertisement while driving.

I didn’t realize until I reached my office and started to dial out the 1-800 number which, of course was a vanity number and my Nokia e61i Smart Phone was plain useless in helping me dial out the number.

As smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, and with the cell phone penetration increasing by the day, it will be difficult to find a keypad that would enable you to remember and dial a vanity number off a roadside hoarding or advertisement. It is surprising, smart phone manufacturers have ignored the utility and convenience of dialing a vanity number.

But are they to be blamed? Dont we all want the Qwerty keyboard for thumbing away those quick emails? I think the iPhone can be a winner in this case, since it has separate virtual keypads for phone dialling and for texting.

Vanity numbers may not lose their popularity, but smart-phone manufacturers may need to come up with some sort of upgrade or an application which could allow users to enter the complete 1-800-2-CALL-ME string in the dial-pad and automatically decode the respective numbers to dial out the DTMF correctly.

It will be nteresting to see how this very widely used feature will adapt in due course of time.

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