For entire broad categories of software, if an application doesn’t recognize that people hold inventories, it won't be compelling to users. As we move into the future, more people on the Internet will be accumulating their own inventories of digital objects and won't want to spend time in software that forces them "start over.”

I like to say that I write about media generally and journalism specifically because the industry is a canary in the coal mine when it comes to the impact of the Internet: text shifted from newsprint to the web seamlessly, completely upending the industry’s business model along the way.Of course I have a vested interest in this shift: for better or... See more

If you zoom far enough out, is it possible that software companies in the future are either suppliers or marketing businesses?