What are the speakers talking about?

M: I think, with technology, it was Microsoft that started it.
W: "It" being the use of teenagers...
M: Yes. Using teenagers to find out what’s in and what isn’t, what the market wants next. Around the year 2000, they started observing these kids to find out what they were doing with technology.
W: And this was an American thing?
M: Well, no, actually they went all over the place observing these kids: from street markets in Seattle to skating rinks in London, bars in Tokyo, anywhere they thought trends might kick off.
W: So the idea was to watch these children, or teenagers, and learn what they wanted to do with their mobile phones, with software.. .
M: That’s right, because it’s teenagers that really drive technology. Kids have no fear of technology. They experiment and they automatically home in on the new. One thing that became clear is that teenagers want technology they can carry around. Anything bigger than a few inches is out. That’s why there was the development of these tiny mobile phones that could be attached to your arm, that type of thing. Text messaging caught on because kids wanted to pass notes to each other during class. The lights that you find on IBM’s ThinkPad keyboard are there because IBM noticed that kids take notes in the dark during lectures.
W: So all of these things came about because of the needs of kids.
M: That’s right.
W: And what’s coming up on the horizon? Is there any big development that has been led by teenagers?
M: Well, the next big area is collaborative computing, where you have groups of people working together online. This is really going to take off in the next few years, because it has massive potential for working environments in the sense that you may be able to work simultaneously on a project with someone who’s on the other side of the world, moving data around together.
W: So is it just technology with these kids?
M: You mean where teenagers are leading the market?
W: Yes.
M: Not at all. I mean, fashion has been youth-led for years and years, but in particular, trainers. Now, if you want to keep up with the latest style of trainers, who do you ask? You don’t ask anyone over twenty, that’s for sure. And I think it was Converse trainers who used to do lots of their market research on the streets, on the basketball courts of New York, anywhere you find teenagers. They may still do this, I don’t know.
W: And, what, they just talk to these kids?
M: Talk to them, watch what they are wearing, the colors, the style, and maybe bring in a prototype, ask the kids if they’d wear these. If not, why not?