About ten years ago, I speculated that we wouldn’t need separate devices for the phone, answering machine, tv, vcr and internet. I thought they would all merge into one device – which would be serviced by the “media company.”  While that didn’t quite happen, there are now companies selling the service.  Both Verizon FIOS (phone company) and Time Warner (cable company) offer phone/tv/internet where I live.  We aren’t on a single device, but some did merge.  And they overlap more than I though they would.

What got me thinking about it was an article from Frank Carver on convergent technology. This technology allows the devices to remain separate while simulatenously allowing them to work together to enhance the user experience.