I just came across an absolutely fascinating chart from the New York Times that shows the rate of adoption of a number of consumer technologies starting with early technologies like the stove, telephone, electricity, and automobile through to the cellphone and internet. Electricity took something under 50 years to reach 90% penetration, the refrigerator took 30 years, and cellphones about 20 years to reach 90% penetration. The point that is being made is that adoption times are being compressed, presumably as a result of faster communications and transportation networks, our ability to design, build and distribute faster, and our increased willingness and ability to accept and adopt new technologies.
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