Introducing Kosher Mobile
March 31st, 2006 | by amarfresh |Today when emerging from Penn Station the AMNY guy handed me their paper before the Metro guy. As a result I now have this to post.
Motorola subsidiary, Mirs Communication, of Israel (of course) debuted a phone last year which carries the seal of approval of Israel’s rabbinical autorities. In a weird, “old tradition meets new technology” way, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel are adopting the ‘kosher phone’.
The kosher phone is stripped down to its original function: making and receiving calls. There’s no text messaging, no Internet access, no video options, no camera. More than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and other offerings are blocked. A team of rabbinical overseers makes sure the list is up to date.
With 14% of Israel’s population being ultra-Orthodox, it seems like a great way to segment the market. Naturally, other Israeli cellcos followed suit with their own kosher offerings. Some offer different colors and styles. (I guess bundling text messaging and internet would defeat the purpose.) There are also rumors of bringing a kosher cell to the US.
I thought of some other “kosher” features. Don’t know if these are too liberal for the Ultra-Orthodox though…
sabbath mode… power on and off automatically, voicemails announced through phones speaker, auto-answer hands-free, auto nightlight.