"The end of stuff" seems rather hyperbolic. More like "the consolidation of gadgets I don't actually use that often". The Swiss Army Knife analogy is telling:

"The end of stuff" seems rather hyperbolic. More like "the consolidation of gadgets I don't actually use that often". The Swiss Army Knife analogy is telling: how much have sales of Swiss Army Knives affected sales of woodworking tools, kitchen cutlery, garden shears, fancy bottle-openers, etc? I can certainly see smartphones supplanting special-purpose devices that have similar form-factors and UIs, such as hand-held GPSs. But devices that have different physical forms or interfaces will still retain their popularity for serious uses. For example, how many smartphones can be tripod-mounted? Anyone who spends hours typing large amounts of text on a laptop every day is unlikely to want to replace it with a smartphone (unless the benefits of increased portability so outweigh the inconvenient interface). Don't get me wrong, smartphones are great, and increased versatility is cool, and having lots of gadgets in my pocket all at once is wonderful (I've carried the same Swiss Army Knife in my pocket since 1979), but there are times when I want buttons I can press without looking (like a stopwatch), or a device I can glance at unobtrusively without having to pick anything up or pull anything out of a pocket (like a wristwatch), or a compass I feel comfortable carrying in my hand while running through the woods.