Let&#x27;s apply the same rubric to smartphones and see if any of the complaints make sense:<p>- Price: Yep, but everything expensive can be solved by pricing. $600 over 2 years seems to be a sweet spot.<p>- Portability: Maybe this is why there are more smartphones than laptops in the world?<p>- Software: The first iPhone was a big step up. App stores were another huge inflection point. Gotta have that software!<p>- Displays: Remember how fast displays improved once Retina broke the ice? Definitely a differentiator for each new generation of phone (until a year or two ago, where things seemed to have cooled off.)<p>- Niche usage: They&#x27;re right, there were a bunch of niches that took off and encouraged markets to open up that otherwise wouldn&#x27;t want it. Square comes to mind; I don&#x27;t think artists are particularly keen on tech for tech sake.<p>I find it fascinating that the problems were identified so clearly in 1985. Much of the progress needed to let laptops and smartphones take off were incremental, but at some point, quantitative changes became qualitative.