These Algorans may not be much on housekeeping-letting Algor run down the way they have, but they're some gadget makers.

For now, Sony, Japan's best-known gadget maker, is deriving most of its profit not from hardware, but from movies, software and services.

Other gadget makers are wrapping everything they can - including keyboards, mice, scanners and modems - in translucent plastic.

But customer support is expensive for gadget makers.

More recently, gadget makers have begun paying more attention to what women really want - beyond color palettes.

Mr. Underhill, a consultant who studies shopping habits, agreed that gadget makers depend, in part, on exploiting such impossible dreams.

Many successful gadget makers have wrestled with this issue and few have conquered it.

If a gadget company cannot sell gadgets, it lays off gadget makers.

But that's part of the game that you, our beloved gadget makers, have chosen to play.

This season, as usual, gadget makers touted their strides in making everything smaller.