Is a high-tech services and office economy. It offers new ways to connect people, goods and services through computers and the networks that link them. Today, Microsoft's Bill Gates is the world's richest man because of high-tech thinking and products. In the latter part of the 1800s, Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in the world at the time, built his fortune on railroads and steel. Involves technology embedded into services and products.
Microchips are now part of such everyday items as toasters.
Even roads have microchips in them to gauge traffic and trigger signals. Places a premium on innovation because competition is global, and it's fierce. In 1965, IBM had 2,500 competitors for all its markets. By 1992, it had 50,000. In 2000, it has 263,000.