MIKE ROSS wrote in a message to Greg Mayman:

 MR> Heck most of the cost of a modem is in the packaging not the 
 MR> circuit! 

That's true of more and more stuff these days...

I remember an article in a mid-1960s issue of Popular Electronics,  where
some guys were discussing the subject of miniaturization.  And this was
*before* chips had come along to move things a whole lot further in that
direction!  The one conclusion they came to in that direction that stuck
with me ever since I read it was that the limiting factor in terms of that
stuff,  packaging,  etc.,  was going to be the controls that a person used
to interact with a given bit of equipment.

I'd say that the market has borne this out,  with various bits being made
smaller and smaller,  until they became clumsy to operate.  And that all
sorts of "user interfaces" have been tried,  over the years. 
Just look at the incredible variety of import electronics that's been
offered,  for example.

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