It’s clear at this point that the convergence of devices we’ve so long speculated about is finally taking off. Between the iPhone and the iPad, we have two wildly popular “blank slates” (I still wish it had been named the “Apple Slate”). Two digital chameleons that software can coerce into pretty much anything.

I wonder if the traditional hardware vendors, those who make dedicated devices like Garmin GPS or [Coby portable DVD players][coby], are going to make the transition to being software companies, or just die off as a victim of progress at the hands of indie software vendors empowered by new generic hardware platforms.

[coby]: http://www.cobyusa.com/?p=pcat&pcat_id=1003 “COBY - MP3 & Portable - MP3 & MP4 Players"a