One problem Americans have with technology is they can't decidewhether they want things bigger or smaller, particularly whendealing with their mobile devices. Tablets have become smallerwhile smartphones are promoting larger screens. The one thing theydo have in common is this nation's never-ending battle againstobesity—we like our devices skinny. We will never be satisfieduntil 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 goingto reach a happy medium on the size of our mobile devices and reachthe point where consumers could get by with just a singledevice.

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

“When the original tablet came out people said it wouldn'treplace their cellphone or their laptop, so why would they evenwant such a new device,” says Josefowicz. “The growth rate [fortablets] has been astonishing and we've seen it does allow peopleto get rid of their laptops. When the seven-inch tablet came outpeople were dismissive of that, too. Now people are finding theportability advantages meet a lot of their intermediary needs.”

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

Bilton quotes Pete Bocko, the chief technology officer forCorning Glass Technologies who worked on Willow Glass: “You cancertainly make it wrap around a cylindrical object and that couldbe someone's wrist. Right now, if I tried to make something thatlooked like a watch that could be done using this flexibleglass.”

Where this is going is anyone's guess. There is always acombination of factors at work. First is the technology factor andthe insatiable desire of technologists to build something new andbetter for the world. The second is the economic factor, and thebusiness world's insatiable desire to sell something new—but notalways better—to the world.

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