Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Kara Lynn uses an iPhone with special software, costing less than $500, to speak to family, friends and doctors.

Moore’s Law is a funny thing. Computing gear ticks along, getting faster and often cheaper at a steady rate. But, every now and then, we hit an inflection point where things change in a drastic fashion. Such is the case with the iPhone from Apple and with netbooks -– products that nailed the right recipe of horsepower, size and cost at the right time.

In an article published Tuesday, I took a look at how iPhones and netbooks have disrupted not only the consumer electronics market but also health care.

People with speech-impairing conditions like A.L.S., autism, Down syndrome and strokes have started to discover that general-purpose devices, equipped with downloadable text-to-speech software, can in many cases help them communicate better and more cheaply than the proprietary speech devices covered by Medicare and private health insurance.

New hardware - Smartphones and Netbooks hit their niche and offer fair prices for speech devices instead of more expensive propriety ones covered by Medicare and private health insurance.