How do you explain the tremendous hype and true excitement about the iPhone? It is not a particularly revolutionary device in that its features all already existed in various places. It's key is integration - simplifying and streamlining the complexity of communications today. People are willing to pay for any device that does this well. Imagine a device you could wear that would serve as an accessory when not needed and morph into a phone, camera or other device form when needed. This sort of device is being developed now in research labs (Here's the video.). This unification of communications as a goal of cell phone providers sets up the broader topic of unified messaging.
Unified messaging is a hot topic right now. It promises integration of telephone, email, and various other ICTs into one interface with unified search, storage, and topic cataloging of content.
