•Explains why cell phone spectrometry is as yet rare.•Suggests ways that personal spectrometry may evolve.•Discusses trade offs among convenience, performance, portability, and cost. While a number of applications for chemical analysis using cell phones as the readout module have come into common use, the characteristics of cell phone cameras and demands of precision spectrometry have prevented the development of a general use cell phone spectrometry platform. The paper reviews the basis for cell phone limitations and explores several approaches to developing such a general platform. Aspects of light sources, sample holders, dispersion, focusing, and camera behavior are discussed.