The trend described in this article was written about by Buckminster Fuller in 1938, except he called it ephemeralization [1].
Paul Graham wrote an essay on the same subject (iphones and ephemeralization) in 2010 and, unlike this piece, made reference to Fuller's early identification of the trend. [2]
Im my opinion, ephemeralization is a better descriptor of the trend than dematerialization. Bucky was an extremely careful user of language, to the point of coining his own words when he didn't feel any existing words served his purpose. I think he was right to not use dematerialization to describe the trend because it is manufacturing where you are not removing material (dematerializing it), rather you are simply not using it, or using less of it, in the first place.
Paul Graham wrote an essay on the same subject (iphones and ephemeralization) in 2010 and, unlike this piece, made reference to Fuller's early identification of the trend. [2]
Im my opinion, ephemeralization is a better descriptor of the trend than dematerialization. Bucky was an extremely careful user of language, to the point of coining his own words when he didn't feel any existing words served his purpose. I think he was right to not use dematerialization to describe the trend because it is manufacturing where you are not removing material (dematerializing it), rather you are simply not using it, or using less of it, in the first place.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization
[2] http://www.paulgraham.com/tablets.html