(Some of this was covered in a past podcast, but I wanted to revisit the idea).
What do the Kindle, the iPad, and Smartphones have in common with Gift Cards?
If you answered "flat and I'm sick of hearing of them as gift options" you're close, but I think you're missing the larger picture. Though I too nearly burnt out on Kindlepadphone news over Christmas, despite my high news-capacity (news is mental jello to me), I believe there is something important about the sales of the Kindle, iPad, and Smartphones over the holiday. In fact, I think there's a trend here that is worth exploring as it's going to affect technology use, and sales, and any jobs related to them.
We've all heard how Amazon's Kindle sales have been awesome. (I did my part in contributing to them as you saw). Of course it seems that iPads are selling like crazy(at least in estimates) and have been doing well since the beginning. Smartphones appear to be hot gifts. So what is this trend beyond "technical stuff sells" that I'm all worked up over?