No more categories

It's already started: products in some traditional categories are disappearing as their functions merge into other existing products. If Bill Gates has his way, the disappearing act will continue as companies merge more and more functions into fewer and fewer products until the market rallies around a small number of very portable, very capable devices that do everything a companion device should do. It's the critical technology behind the concept of ubiquitous computing--and the technology most likely to bring about new ways of using computers. We're already seeing ultra portable computers, like the UMPC come to market--and those may be just the products to tear down some category walls.

For more on the new products:
- Read the analysis at InformationWeek