[Willie Green]

That's OK. The market is saturated anyway.
"Bigger, better, faster" has reached the point of diminishing returns on investment for most consumers.
The once ballyhooed "new economy" of high-tech electronic microchips have become just another mature commodity sector of the same old "buggy-whip" economy we've always had. The hypesters are gonna hafta find a different mantra to chant. Y2K is OVER.

[boris]

"That's OK. The market is saturated anyway."

Yeah; IBM thought the world could use maybe two of its early mainframes.

New technologies will get us past this bump in the road. You ain't seen nuthin' yet...in terms of speed or capacity.

Eventually your PDA will contain more raw computing power than every single computer currently on the planet.

--Boris

[Wright is right!]

""Bigger, better, faster" has reached the point of diminishing returns on investment for most consumers. The once ballyhooed "new economy" of high-tech electronic microchips have become just another mature commodity sector of the same old "buggy-whip" economy we've always had."

100% correct, my friend. For the vast majority of PC users, speed has outstripped the need for speed and is now merely a gamer's brag. And the market has indeed matured, and with such maturity, the expansion now is in the direction of digital control of convenience.

For instance, all those "homes of the future" you saw on various TV reports with virtually everything in them being computer-controller are now going to become much more common, as ordinary devices become microprocessor-controlled. New micropchip applications are being marketed to take advantage of manufacturing capacity now that the PC market is mature.

We just bought a small electric space heater for the living room - a nifty device to take the occasional chill out of the room. These ceramic space heaters normally come with a thermostat and a blower knob. No more. THIS one is microchip-controlled with an LCD display AND a REMOTE CONTROL. It's only a very small step from there to an entire houseful of these heaters, all controlled by one remote (radio signals over house wiring). That would then give you the ultimate in zoned heating, with each room as its own zone.

Dishwashers are now all microchip. Ranges and many fridges are, too. Once you make the appliances WORK under chip control, it's only a very small step to network them. The company that comes up with the easiest-to-use networking method will make a nice piece of change in the Chipping Of Convenience.

I used to laugh at the ridiculous number of things that went to chip control, but it's no longer funny. There is an actual good reason for it, which is the use of capacity to expand marketing targets.

5 years from now, we'll see chip control of virtually anything that plugs in. Power tools, lamps, toasters, you name it.

Michael

[Moonman62]

The hypesters are gonna hafta find a different mantra to chant. Y2K is OVER.

The capitalists will find new opportunities to create and expand markets. It's your type of attitude that keeps us from reaching full employment.

[Dead Dog]

"Bigger, better, faster" has reached the point of diminishing returns on investment for most consumers.

That is just what Boeing started preaching after contracting the McDonnell parasite from the carcass of Douglas. There will always be a market for bigger, better, faster. We have by no measure run out of uses for faster computers.

[Bush2000]

The market is never saturated at the high end. Companies will continue to invest in ever-faster processors as a means of improving their productivity. That will never change.