In the US, almost one in three adults say the cell phone is the invention they most hate but cannot live without, according to the eighth annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index study. Alarm clocks came second, with 25% of the vote, followed by the television (23%) and razors (14%).

Well, I don't hate mobile phones, but I have doubts about the mobile phone industry. That's mainly because I have recently been travelling with two of the best phones money can buy (I borrowed them). The results have been discouraging, to say the least.

In the US, for example, one phone would not dial some UK phone numbers from its address book, even though it displayed them correctly on its screen. Other numbers it dialled without any problems. In Malaysia, I couldn't get the second phone to make contact with anything, though it did pick up the local carriers.

I did, however, learn three things. The first is that you have to use three different terms: they are called cell phones in the US, mobiles in the UK, and hand phones in parts of Asia.

The second is that it's a very good idea to take two phones: you can pass any idle hours trying to call yourself. (You don't have to answer, if you ever get through.)

The third is that the mobile phone industry is a mess.

If mobiles had been developed 50 years ago, when fewer people travelled, incompatibilities would be understandable. However, everything we have learned since then has shown the value of global mass market standards, ranging from the humble C90 compact cassette and the AA battery to the internet and beyond. The mobile phone industry's idea that we should be gratefully amazed if we can send, say, a picture message from one network to anyone just beggars belief, especially when the two networks overlap.

C an you swap a SIM from one mobile to another? Sometimes, but often not. Can you expect to transfer 1,000 phone numbers reliably from one to another? Maybe you can if you can synchronise both with a PC or the web, but it's not guaranteed. Can you swap headsets, batteries or even chargers between phones? Are you serious?

It is, of course, entirely possible that many of the problems I experienced were due to my own errors, and I was often trying to do things I have never done before. But in principle, no one should have to be any sort of expert to make a phone call.

I can now carry a notebook PC around and expect it to work almost anywhere in the world, either using a roaming system such as iPass or Gric, or amenable cybercafes, and the PC is a relatively dumb beast.

There's no reason why a mobile shouldn't know which country it is in, what time it is locally, and be able to dial any number in its address book without messing about. And at the rip-off prices being charged for overseas calls, I think it is the least we should expect.