I've only bought one cell phone in my entire life. It was a very nice model that only cost me about $100 (after the rebate), about 3 years ago. I was starting up a landscaping business at the time, and I needed it because it is really good for clients to call up when you're not at home for any "special" work they needed done. I could also use it to take real nice pics of the jobs I did, which saved me five to six hundred dollars for a digi-camera. Another nice feature it had was the ability to voice record reminder, so I could also use it as an alarm clock. Unfortunately, all my tools were stolen just before I had the chance to buy insurance for all my tools and stuff so my business got sunk on the fact that I didn't have the $1,250 to go re-coup on everything yet.
After that I shut the service off and it became just an alarm clock for me, and it worked great over the next year. It was so awesome waking up to myself shouting "HEY!! GET UP!... HEY!! TIME TO GET UP!!!". But then about almost a year ago I woke up one morning with my phone going off. I shut it off, and made my way to the bathroom. I set my phone on top of the tank as I was about to take my morning constitutional. My roommate at the time must not have said anything about having toilet troubles the night before (because the tank lid was at an angle and I didn't notice), because all of a sudden the phone just slid off the top of the tank and, sploosh!!
A strange white bright light came on the phone, and it wouldn't stop vibrating. I tried to shut it off, but it was unresponsive so it just ran dead. I threw it on the charger, but after it charged back up and I turned it on, it just did the same thing. I put it away and completely forgot about it until about 6 months ago when I found it while I was packing up since me and my new wife were moving into a new place together. I threw it on the charger and waited about 6 hours. I took it off the charger and pressed the power button. The beginning start up screen came up, but then it shut off and it started doing that same shit all over again. Damn, I wanted my alarm clock back!
So in summary, I think cell phones are great if you're running your own business. But otherwise they're really no use, unless you want to pay $100 for an alarm clock.