You may be wondering, after reading press releases like these, why manufacturers and service operators just can't call their low-end models "cheap" or even "affordable." It's entthe fault of people like Seth Godin. In his new book, "Meatball Sundae," Mr. Godin writes about the need for remarkability:

Meatballs are commodity products, built in a factory, advertised all over. Stuff we need. All the same. Average products for average people. Unremarkable, but important. The backbone of our world so far.

The sundae is the new marketing. Blogs and Facebook and google and crowdsourcing and all the stuff that we get excited about. It works great if you've got a social object or a purple cow. But put the sundae on a meatball and...

Mr. Godin is right on the money. That's why see cheap cell phones being marketed as for "emerging markets."