Between the magnetic stripe and Quicken, you never again have to see a bank lobby, bank statement, credit card statement or paper check. The stuff in the middle is invisible now, as easily changed as the oil in your car. Similar forces sucked the profit out of air travel a decade ago. On-line reservations systems reduced travel planning to a sterilized list of choices blinking on a monitor, ranked by date, time and price. Personal Expertware of Redmond, Wash. sells a piece of software, Air Travel Manager, that supplies complete access to the on-line reservations services and effortless booking of flights.
High commissions give way to a software-smartened appliance as ubiquitous as a toaster.
Sony is scrambling to get into the PC business because it can see that's where many of its current markets are headed. The smarts are in the computer now. Television hardware is going the same way. Computers already have better displays, and vastly more powerful capabilities within. But inside the box will be the standard PC of the day.