History can always repeat itself; almost every product category follows a similar path. An entirely new category created followed a unique idea. As time goes on, the category diverges and then some divergence products come out. Take the iPhone as an example, Apple eliminated the keyboard used on other smartphones. That doubled the area available for a screen, making the iPhone much more useful as an internet device. IPhone and other smartphones are "divergence" devices. We used to have one type of mobile phone and now we have two types: cellphones and smartphones. The each has their unique features, so the smartphones are highly unlikely to replace the cellphone.

Some industry experts have predicted the iPhone and other smartphones are replacing the personal computer; however, it is not true, because that the worldwide PC shipments, for example, were up 10.3% in the latest quarter. Study other revolutionary developments and you'll usually find they were initiated by asking the question, "What can we do without?", and then they tackle the main conflict and get the success by stripping out elements that had previously been assumed to be necessary, the innovator is left with more energy and ability to focus on making what's left that much better. It's the old adage "Jack of all trades is master of none".

And in present time, there are so many high ends audio and video players have been sold in the market, still millions of consumers who were using conventional MP3 players. The smartphone are primarily used by millions of consumers as an email device, and also the iphone was introduced as a smartphone without a keyboard. The Apple TV was considered as a typical convergence product of trying to marry the internet with the TV set.

For a dozen years, high-tech companies have been trying to put the two together, egged on by the media. "Is it tellynet or netelly" was the headline of an article in the Dec. 13, 1997, issue of The Economist. "If ever two media were meant to wed, they are television and the internet." Of course, adding the function of one device to another device doesn't mean the two devices are converging. So even if every TV set is able to surf the internet, it doesn't mean that any convergence has taken place. The essence of convergence is that when two categories come together and become one category. And in the future there may be no distinction between the personal computer and the TV set. Over time, every category evolves as well as diverges. Today's TV set isn't the same as yesterday's TV set. Today's personal computer isn't the same as yesterday's personal computer, either. Desktops are disappearing and laptops are getting smaller and lighter.

Apple certainly has had its failures in developing and promoting their products.

Hehe is an editor of wholesale electronics website. In his 18, he began to be involved in business area and study how to be a great businessman by himself. Now, he is a marketing expert.