EASE OF USE
Back when I got my first desktop (late 80's, prehistoric amber screen days) adding memory, or a hard drive, was not a rivial task. config.sys needed to be changed, autoexec.bat may also need to be modified. Mouse? That was the furry thing in the corner. DOS was THE operating system. They were basically unifunctional machines, with crappy video. The sound blaster card was the addition to have. At well over $100.
What I'm trying to say is that people didn't expect it to be easy to work on a machine, and vendors of both software and hardware could get away with cryptic and long-winded instructions.
Things have changed.
Yesterday I bought a PCI card with 2 USB2.0 ports and 2 firewire ports for my Packard-Bell desktop. I'm running a fully update Windows XP. After installing the card (in the last remaining slot) and turning on the box, XP found the drivers, chugged and whirred for about 5 minutes, and voila...it works fine.
By the way, the card cost me the equivalent of $39 (USD).
New additions to the platform now have to be cheap, and idiot-proof. Problems, complications, requirement for more than the most basic of thought will not be tolerated by the average user.
I think the services Wave are offering will be invisible AND EXPECTED by the computer users. And for that reason, and that reason alone, WAVE will have enormous success...
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. - Carl Sagan
AI
