A dictionary definition of ‘gadget’ is ‘a small[1] technological object (such as a device or an appliance) that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty.’

Gadgets are loved, and hated, in equal measure, and have been with us for a long time. Some gadgets, while still novel, can be of great assistance, while others are simply for enjoyment, and of little, or sometimes no, use at all.

If we think of a necessary gadget, we think of such as a mobile phone.

When mobile cell phones first came onto the market, they were so new and unusual that how they looked, and what they did beyond making and receiving calls was of no importance. Now, as we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the mobile is considered so much a part of everyday life that, while still technically in the realms of gadgetry, manufacturers are loading them with more and more features in order to make them more attractive than a rival offering.

Think about it – who actually needs a camera on a phone? How often would one have thought of taking a photograph if the opportunity to do so had not been there? And then there are the myriad games that suppliers are keen to tell us about, and phones with internet access, with music players, and so on.

If we tale a step back and look at the development of the mobile phone in recent years something becomes clear: what started life as a gadget that would soon, clearly, become a very useful instrument, very quickly became an everyday object outside of the realm of gadgets. In order to make their phone more marketable, what the suppliers have done is take a non-gadget, a daily object, and convert it back into a gadget.

The phone is no longer a phone, it is a small technological object that has a particular function but is, after all, packed with novelty features.

It will be worth watching over the years how manufacturers build on the popularity of the current gadgetry fad that is sweeping the world, that of the satellite navigation device, or Satnav.

Already, with a market teeming with different models and prices falling at an alarming rate, the need to make your satnav stand out from the one in the shop next door is buzzing through the minds of the marketing men.

Watch this space as satnav goes from gadget, to useful item, and back to gadget again, just as the mobile phone has already done.