Divergence revisited

Once again I found my self traveling between Bristol and Grenoble this week. And once again I bought myself a copy of The Economist to keep myself occupied on the flight home. This week was the occasion of The Economist's technology review and I'm pleased to say to mentioned the issue of digital divergence. Unfortunately the article, about telephones, is only available for paid view so you, dear reader, will have to make do with my precis. Essentially, The Economist draws the analogy between the car and the phone. Both are fashion items, both rapidly move technology from the high-end to the low-end, and in terms of what the consumer wants, both are unpredictable. (What ever happened to video calling? Why do people drive round crowed cities in SUVs? Why send 160 character text messages when you can talk to someone at less cost?). Oh, the final one, no one asks which is the one type of car that we will converge to; we accept the need for diversity and multiple ownership. Maybe digital technology is like that too?