> Anyone think it strange that a phone company wouldn't see the emergence of the smartphone? > Guffawed when I saw those phone booth picture phones. It's how

> Anyone think it strange that a phone company wouldn't see the emergence of the smartphone? > Guffawed when I saw those phone booth picture phones. It's how these things usually work: The Future Is The Same, But Different The Same: Things basically click along they way they do now. Want to make a call away from home or office? Use a payphone. Most natural thing in the world. But Different: Well, payphones aren't going to stay the same, are they? Videophones have been a Coming Thing for decades now, so obviously we'll have Video Payphones. All of those Coming Things. Where have they all gone? The interesting thing to me is this: Car phones had existed for decades by that point. They'd slimmed down to bag phones for the masses, and bricks for Gordon Gekko and his proteges. But AT&T didn't prognosticate their continued slimming driving payphones into irrelevance. You don't even need the smartphone concept, which was a truly interesting convergence of cell phone and computer, to get the idea that "Cell phones getting smaller" leads to "I can carry a phone with me" leads to "I don't need a payphone" leads to payphones no longer existing. Oh, and Bag Phone, because nobody else seems to remember them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone