I do not use the phone in my '97 740i so I would like to remove it. Has anyone seen or can advise of what can go in it's place? I turn it on with my elbow daily and I am not particulalry fond of its looks either. Do I have to buy a new armrest and is one even available?

I removed my phone and solved the problem at little cost. The phone is attached to a plastic snap-in "plate" of sorts. You can simply pull the whole thing straight up and it will "pop out". It has a hole in it where the cord goes. Remove the phone and take the snap-in plate to your local auto upholstery shop. Those folks have 1,001 material choices...and my local guy (Fargo, North Dakota) had a perfect match to my interior. He put a piece of foam on the plate and "wrapped" it in the matching vinyl and charged me 15 bucks. I gave him a 20 and said "keep the change"
because I'm such a big spender! I took the piece to the car...snapped it in place and you'd never know it wasn't stock. Good luck.

Thank you for your reply and advice. I will do that!