ABSTRACT
Our earlier discussion about the future of mobile devices in general and e-books in particular had a number of hidden assumptions. That is, we assumed that digital displays, memory, network bandwidth, and processors would become exponentially faster, cheaper, and more abundant. These expectations have proved to be true for at least the past forty years. This amazing track record of the information technology (IT) industry to deliver higher and higher levels of performance at lower prices can be illustrated by an old joke attributed to Bill Gates, “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 miles per gallon” [34].
