One problem Americans have with technology is they can't decide whether they want things bigger or smaller, particularly when dealing with their mobile devices. Tablets have become smaller while smartphones are promoting larger screens. The one thing they do have in common is this nation's never-ending battle against obesity—we like our devices skinny. We will never be satisfied until we have paper-thin tablets and smartphones.

In the course of my interview this week with Matt Josefowicz, partner and managing director for Novarica, on the use of mobile devices in insurance, I asked him if we were ever going to reach a happy medium on the size of our mobile devices and reach the point where consumers could get by with just a single device.

Josefowicz declined to speculate on whether we would one day reach that point, but he did have an interesting opinion: Don't bet against changes in technology.

“When the original tablet came out people said it wouldn't replace their cellphone or their laptop, so why would they even want such a new device,” says Josefowicz. “The growth rate [for tablets] has been astonishing and we've seen it does allow people to get rid of their laptops. When the seven-inch tablet came out people were dismissive of that, too. Now people are finding the portability advantages meet a lot of their intermediary needs.”

There are reports that Apple is working on a wrist device for yet another change in the mobile market. In his New York Times technology blog Bits, Nick Bilton writes: Last year, Corning, the maker of the ultra-tough Gorilla Glass that is used in the iPhone, announced that it had solved the difficult engineering challenge of creating bendable glass, known as Willow Glass.

Bilton quotes Pete Bocko, the chief technology officer for Corning Glass Technologies who worked on Willow Glass: “You can certainly make it wrap around a cylindrical object and that could be someone's wrist. Right now, if I tried to make something that looked like a watch that could be done using this flexible glass.”

Where this is going is anyone's guess. There is always a combination of factors at work. First is the technology factor and the insatiable desire of technologists to build something new and better for the world. The second is the economic factor, and the business world's insatiable desire to sell something new—but not always better—to the world.

Mobility has come a long way in a short time and the trip has only just begun and that's no joke, Chester Gould.

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Reaching the Happy Medium on Mobile Devices

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