But as one whose iPod has become a curiosity before I could even import all my CDs I know exactly why it's a concern what the next step in technology will be.
This makes for an interesting philosophical point.
Stuff is changing so quickly that one could spend the rest of one's days - concerned. One is really never going to buy into a technology or new market safe in the knowledge that something is future proof. So why even consider it, never mind experiencing concern.
I saw my Dad experiencing this with TV's.
"Stereo costs too much so I will wait until it drops."
"Ooh, widescreen has come in so we should get that, once the price drops."
"Hmm, HD is just around the corner. Perhaps we should wait for that to drop."
In the end, bless him, he died and so ended up in doing none of the above.
The point is to put your stake in the ground and just go for it, safe in the knowledge that you are making the right decision with the right knowledge at the time. Otherwise, you might die having gone down none of the routes. And you will have lead a life being concerned.
All of that is true. As you say, "one is really never going to buy into a technology or new market safe in the knowledge that something is future proof." That's always been the case and always will be the case.
To my mind, though, the difference today lies in the sheer
speed with which technology seems to be changing, as well as the (to me - I'm only nine years your junior, Simon) mind-boggling array of gizmos and formats with which one can read things, watch things, listen to things and do things. Gone are the days when something like VHS can appear and have an active, market-dominating life of more than twenty years.
There's a technology show on the BBC News channel - forget what it's called, but I find myself watching it every so often, and every time I do I stagger away from my TV set feeling like Austin Powers unthawed into a world he no longer understands.
"Tablets", "clouds", "iThis", "iThat", "platforms", "blackberries", "raspberries", and heaven knows what else. I simply can't comprehend what I'm watching.
So it's not just that things like the Kindle will one day be out of date. It's that I sometimes wonder whether they'll be museum pieces within
weeks. I already feel a bit burned by the Blu-ray format (although it's great to be able to watch Bond in high definition at home), which looks as though it'll be consigned to the dustbin of history any day now.
