Reply #11: The technology doesn't get there...

[The_Commonist]

...unless the early adapters buy it at crazy prices.

My father bought a "Bowmar Brain" pocket calculator in like 1973.
I think it cost $400.
Just a few years later, more powerful calculators were being given away in cereal boxes.

The Macbook that I'm typing this on cost me half (in 2008 dollars) what my first Mac Plus cost me in 1988 dollars.

$120 light bulb? Not for me, thank you. But it will never be a $1.20 light bulb without the early adapters...