Chelsea Clements' Response to Gilder

I found this book long,  but still somewhat interesting since I am going into digital marketing and advertising. As I read, I wrote down direct quotes and my reaction to some of the more dead-on things and ideas that I thought were way off. I'll share some of those first:

Prologue:

• "Cell phones will be as portable as a watch and as personal as a wallet; they will recognize speech and navigate streets (If the navigation on my phone wasn't $5.99/month I'd get VZNavigator), open the door and start the car (I'm sure there could be something like this soon since remote controls can start cars), collect the email (I have my email synced!) and the news (You bet I am on CNN on my phone) and the paycheck (I text Chase, Chase texts me back)"
• "Computers nets afford peer-to-peer interactivity rather than top-down broadcasts" 
•  “Telephone companies can survive only to the extent that they transform themselves into digital computer networks" They haven't and that's why people are starting to not have landlines. Cell phones have obviously transformed into digital computers networks and have made landlines cost inefficient. Why pay for long distance on a homeline when you can call long distance for free on your cell?

Ch 6

• "Computers pose not threat to newspapers. Indeed the Computer is the perfect complement to the newspaper" This is just wrong. Gilder talks about how the internet will allow the delivery of the product to go directly to the customer, cutting out the cost of the middleman. Gilder failed to acknowledge the business model that people expect from information from the internet: FREE. Newspapers are failing because people don't need to by them anymore. I can read a full version of almost any newspaper in the country online for free. Yes the computer can be a compliment to the newspaper, but so many news services have come about that are not tied to a newspaper. 
• Fat Panel - This concept reminded me a lot of Amazon's Kindle, the wireless reading device that comes on a flat panel portable screen. Using Kindle, a user can instantly download a book, magazine, blog or newspaper
• "Everybody will become information providers as well as consumers" - iReporting/Citizen Reporting has become crucial. These unpaid "journalists" are able to report news  and events far before a reporter can, considering it has to go through editors and filters before appearing in a paper.

Afterword

• "To make the TV boob tube into an interactive hive of theater, museum, classroom, banking system, shopping center, post office and communicator is contrary to the nature of the box" Are we are marketers overlooking the possibilities of TV as being an interactive medium or have we simply taken the good parts of TV and incorporating them into the internet. I don't even have to turn on a TV to enjoy my favorite shows, so why should I have to endure crappy time slots and unappealing advertising that is not applicable to me just to watch The Office? 

All in all, Gilder was pretty correct in his thoughts about the future, however I believe his thoughts on newspapers was fairly off.