If you are not convinced, think about what happens when you call a company and get tossed into a voicemail system that requires you to jump through hoops before reaching a person, if you're lucky, or hanging up in frustration, if you're not. Those systems are convenient for the company, but the technology leaves callers angry and frustrated. The end result can be as simple as a frustrated customer or as complex as a lost sale.

But we've done the same thing to our customers for years. Whether through intent or error, the technology industry has made its customers jump through hoops since its inception, and all because we haven't taken the time to understand how customers want to interface with a piece of hardware or software. We forced customers to change the way they do things in order to be the first on their block with some new hardware or software. And it worked because there was always a relatively large pool of early adopters willing to change their work process to suit the technology.

The reverse is true with convergence products. Consumers already have effective tools for many of the things they do, making a phone call, for example, or keeping track of their appointments. Unless emerging convergence products enhance the way the user already works, it won't matter how many other bells and whistles we provide-the products will be dead in the water.

Manufacturers in Europe and Asia, particularly Japan, understand that concept far better than those in America. If you doubt me, take a look at the number of Nokia cell phones on the international market or the NTT Docomo i-mode phone system in Japan. Those manufacturers understood that the users wanted a more convenient way to make their phone calls and they provided it. The results speak for themselves.

The PDA is the best example of an American-made convergence product, and it's obvious to any user that the developers weren't interested in how the customer took notes.

Once again users were forced to change the way they do things, in this case, relearn how to print in order to meet the needs of the computer interface. It is true the PDAs enjoyed a certain amount of early popularity, but that is a miniscule part of the total market. Think how rapid market penetration could have been if the user interface were properly designed.

Only those companies that are willing to enhance the level of sophistication at the user interface level will succeed in the convergence market.

David Milne is Managing Director for Wolfson Microelectronics Ltd. (Edinburgh, Scotland).