Woz Says PC Technology Reaching A Plateau

from the no-surprise-there dept

As a bunch of inventors got together today to celebrate the US Patent and Trademark Office's bicentennial (that's worth celebrating?). The various inventors talked about the state of the technology industry and what needed to be done to keep it humming. The article quotes Steve Wozniak pointing out that the upgrade mania for computers is over. Most people, he says, have the computer they want and don't see any need to upgrade. Others discuss the need for government support of innovation, which some say is needed for the US to compete against other countries. This is the same argument that comes up whenever people get the chance to ask the government for money. They're always going to claim they need more support in order to get more money. The problems come when they start relying on the government too much, and the government starts setting its own technology standards and doing weird stuff that tends to hurt innovation more in the long run.