Commentary: The Mistake of Convergence

"It is very rare indeed that users want everything combined in a single device. It is much more often the case that the reverse holds true: users want things separated and simpler, not combined and more complex.

Historically, there has not been evidence that communications channels gradually converge. Indeed quite the reverse: there are now more means of communicating than ever.

If one follows this argument through, one is left with a vision in which there is an infinite number of channels of communication. Does this sound plausible? In its exaggerated form clearly not; there must be some kind of threshold beyond which users are not willing to go."

-- from an article by Richard Harper, senior scientist at Microsoft.
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