Silicon Valley replaced Japan as the global center of aspirational consumer tech

Evidence

Riding the momentum of social media, the internet had transformed in a few short years from a hobbyist haven for nerds to the epicenter of global culture. Tech companies became the new media powerhouses, shaping tastes and trends. Steve Jobs had revitalized Apple with colorful iMacs and the iPod before revolutionizing the world with the iPhone. Unlike the BlackBerry, the iPhone wasn’t just functional—it was aspirational, seamlessly blending design and culture. The iPhone crushed every device that had come before. Japanese manufacturers spent two decades developing the world’s most advanced mobile phones; by early 2010, the iPhone captured 72 percent of the Japanese phone market. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 276

Categorization

• XREF: This is the lead-in to Marx’s transition narrative — the tech-utopia chapter of the omnivore-monoculture story, matched against the book’s own period structure the reader must trace.