Excuse my red eyes and yawning, but I had a recurring nightmare last night that scared whatever wits remained out of me. I dreamed that all the mobile phones ever made had come back, all at once, and were ringing simultaneously.
This is indeed a scary thought when you consider that there were 2.14 billion mobiles in the world at the end of last year. And the US-based research firm Strategy Analytics predicts the number will rise by a further 1 billion by the end of December.
That figure is based on the 31 per cent increase in global sales during the final quarter of last year.
If such growth continues, by about April next year, enough mobiles will have been manufactured to supply half of the world's 6.5 billion people. Hong Kong, with the highest penetration rate - 125.1 per cent - is setting the tone for all and sundry to follow.
Roll back the clock to 1991, when the International Telecommunication Union estimated there were just 16 million mobile subscribers worldwide, and you get a sense of where we have come from - and, more frighteningly, where we are heading.
It's enough to make your ears bleed, just thinking of the clamour of all those ringtones.