Maybe it is the turning of the annual clock, or possibly because CES* is happening in Las Vegas that I have seen several articles in the last week that look like these:
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David Weinberger: The future is a gimmick (KMWorld, Jan 2010)
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Chris Dixon: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy
There was something similar in the International Herald Tribune as well.
So, what is the story? These articles all say something of form that people get so accustomed to the way they do things and how they do them that new ways of doing things; new tools; and even new things to do all look odd or silly or the like. Go have a look to get their take on this discussion.
And then there are the people who can't wait to put their hands on the latest and greatest widget that comes out of CES or Apple or Google. I suspect these are the "edge cases" who are either looking for or willing to be part of that future. Or maybe they like shiny toys.
* CES is the big Consumer Electronics Show. There was a quick blurb on TV yesterday that showed a model hovercraft that could be controlled from an iPhone and which beams a video feed back to the phone. Now that looked like the future!
[Photo: "Shiny new toy" (a coffee roaster!) by Liyang HU]