I am reminded of the story about how the market for the Xerox photocopier was initially computed. # of secretaries x # letters / day * average # mimeograph cop

I am reminded of the story about how the market for the Xerox photocopier was initially computed. # of secretaries x # letters / day * average # mimeograph copies of each letter. The potential of the technology to affect the use of its outputs was ignored. My wife and I recently upgraded our crappy mobiles to Droids. We hadn't at all considered the value of geolocating each other, but we quickly realized that a significant portion of the calls we made to each other were for the sole purpose of asking, "Where are you?" or "How close to X are you?" The potential uses of a new technology are not always obvious before adoption.