these kind of product launches would largely

Whereas a few years ago, these kind of product launches wouldlargely be covered within specialist media (or the technologysection of the newspapers), these launches will very much be in themainstream. In fact, in WPP's 2012 BrandZ survey of the world's most valuable brands,four of the top five were tech firms. Aside from the financial perspective (Apple currently being theworld's most valuable company and Microsoft and Google jostling tobe the world's second most valuable tech firm). The coveragereflects the fact that these releases now matter to the mainstream.Despite working closely with Microsoft, I'm still amazed at howwidespread the adoption of these devices is.

Whether it's the50-something taxi driver in the village of Wendens Ambo, near whereI live, filling time between trips Skyping on his netbook with afriend in Bangladesh, or his fellow mini-cab driver signalling tohis fare by holding a ticker app with her name on his iPad (both ofwhich I witnessed last week). Or the conversation with my84-year-old father-in-law at the weekend around the relative meritsof the Kindle Fire and iPad for those with accessibilityrequirements, it seems that personal computing is increasinglybeing seen as an everyday necessity for us all -- something thatWired readers will have known for a long time.