The annual consumption of Coco-Cola per capita in the regional markets mentioned

As China’s vast interior gets richer, Grenda Lee, Coco-Cola’s Shanghai-based director of external affairs, finds herself dreaming about tapping the country’ s rural market. Chinese peasants account for roughly 70 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people, but on average each drinks only three Coke products a year. That compares with some 60 drinks consumed annually in Shanghai and Beijing, 150 in Hong Kong and 420 in the United States. With so many customers at stake, potential profits take on epic scale.

The evolution of technology is showing no signs of maturing whatsoever. If you look at nanomaterials or photonics, carbon nanotubes, all the things that are going on in new types of energy, environmentally better materials—there’s no shortage of new technology coming. It is nowhere near maturity. Certainly, there’s consolidation among business rood- els and competitors, but it doesn’t have the telltale signs of a mature industry where there’s no innovation.