the Greater Nomadic Council

Apple and Convergence

Curious about the future of Apple or the future of MP3 players? Then read this article:

An iPod Mini is going to make a much better mobile music player than your cell phone. But when your cell phone has 5 gigabytes of storage and bluetooth headphones.... the writing is on the wall here. All that's missing is a little time. Apple is one solid-state storage breakthrough (and the networks getting their act together on 3G) from having the market for the iPod evaporate to a pale shadow of its former glory, and they know it.

Although most of the article discusses Apple's strategy for the future, it touches on one of the more interesting topics when considering technology, convergence. I've been saying for years that one day there will be a cell phone/laptop hybrid with paper-thin screens and keyboards that can be rolled up to fit the entire device in your pocket, nearly ubiquitous high speed, wireless Internet access, and the whole thing will cost less than $500. That's still my dream device. It's probably 10-15 years away, but it will happen thanks to convergence and Moore's Law. It will be the exclamation point on the Information Revolution.