As an admitted gadget idiot, I ought to be drawn to Verizon Communications Inc.'s (NYSE:VZ) Chocolate and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (NYSE:S) Fusic phones. After all, wouldn't it be better to have one device to play your music and make telephone calls. It's one less expensive thing that can be left in a restaurant or lost in a taxi. Still, I am not ready to take the plunge yet.

Apple Computer Inc.'s (Nasdaq:AAPL) iPod is so simple to use that even a caveman can use it. I really don't care for now that I can't make a phone call over my iPod. I would rather have a good MP3 and a good cell phone rather than a mediocre device that does multiple things.

That's why I am curious about what will come of the reported alliance between Apple and Cingular. CNNMoney points out that if the report in the Wall Street Journal proves accurate, this is bad news for Verizon and Sprint, which unlike Cingular use CDMA technology while Cingular uses the more common GSM. Other attempts to sell iPod phones have flopped because they weren't very good.

For technophobes like me to buy a new device, it has to be durable (we drop stuff a lot) and easy to use. I can be persuaded to give up my temperamental iPod if something great came along to replace it. Ditto for my cell phone. So, I'll check out what's going to come out from Apple and Cingular.

The companies might consider selling clips for their device like the ones kids have for their mittens. It would sure save me a lot of aggravation.

Jonathan Berr is the editor of http://www.desperateinvestors.com.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you are rooting for satellite radio, cast your vote.

Back when Sirius had almost no subscribers, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) traded for $63. That was six years ago. XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:XMSR) was $45 then. But now Sirius trades at $4 on a good day and XM changes hands around $15. These businesses looked better on paper than they did once they were operating companies. XM will end the year with something short of eight million subscribers. Revenue in the last reported quarter was $240 million. Sirius had revenue of $167 million for the same period.

But it's unlikely that early investors thought these companies would have balance sheets with over $1 billion in debt, or that they would still be losing money in 2006.

To a large extent, what happened was competition. The iPod was launched in 2001, and no one thought that within five years it would sell 70 million units. The number of cars that have built-in iPod adapters grows each day -- they even put them in BMWs.

How could satellite radio investors have looked ahead and seen the cell phone as a portable music player? There are currently two billion cell phones in "circulation" and a billion more are sold each year. Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) thinks it will sell 80 million music phones this year.

Observing the world of mobile phones, Jim Cramer said that handsets have been one of the greatest growth drivers around and best money-makers. He thinks the uncertainty presented by international governments just helps cell phone makers. The company that can produce the cheapest, he says, and deliver that into the third world will be the winner. He thinks that Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) can do this, and he thinks that NOK is the one to buy. He likes NOK for this reason more than he likes Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) or Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT).

Cramer said they are the lowest-cost provider and they might be selling them at subsidy levels, but he thinks they are establishing brand loyalty in those markets. He thinks Nokia will have the biggest footprint out of the cellphone makers, and as their middle classes grow so will Nokia.

Do those in international markets have brand loyalty? If they go cheap now and that gets established as "the cheap intro brand" then won't the upwardly mobile go look for sa step-up? He might be right here, and he might not. The stock may even go up from here, but I would be willing to bet that it is for different reasons. We'll see.

What kind of cellphone do you use? If you're in the majority, it's a Motorola handset. Motorola now has -- by far -- the largest share of the handset market in the U.S. and appears to be making a global run at Nokia to try and regain the top global spot for the first time in a decade. The jury is still out on whether Motorola can do this, but if the ultra-popular RAZR phenomenon continues -- and it does almost two years after release -- then Motorola will continue to make headway. It's rare that a single product carries a company like this, but just like Apple's iPod, Motorola's RAZR re-defined the category.

But it does not stop there. According to Forrester Research, Motorola is one of the top trusted brands in the wireless market, which includes hardware manufacturers and wireless carriers alike, from Motorola and Samsung to Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless. Samsung and Sprint Nextel rank among the least-trusted brands in the U.S., while Motorola and Verizon Wireless coming in at most-trusted levels, with Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile also pulling the same score. Just slightly off was Sprint Nextel, but that slightness was enough for a "least trusted" rating.

How about wireless handset manufacturers? In what I consider more perception than actual reality, handset makers Palm scored 4.3 and a B+ overall, while Motorola -- maker of the RAZR and other popular offshoot handsets, scored 4.2, for an overall grade of B. LG Electronics and Samsung fared the worst, both scoring 4.0, for overall grades of C- and D-, respectively. The "aura" around the Treo line of smartphones and the RAZR line of phones is probably due to the enormous loyalty customers have to both brands when such a subjective topic of "trust" comes along.

Samsung and LG and other makers have wireless handsets that topple the Motorola RAZR and other phones in terms of features and ease-of-use, but the sheer popularity and loyalty Motorola users have cannot be underestimated. If you create the market -- like the RAZR did for slim phones and the Treo did for on-the-go productivity -- then customers will always have "trust". MOT shares seem happy these days as a result.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.