What will be left for the Western companies is the "ideation," the original concept and design of a flagship product (which is a big deal), and then the sales and marketing.

"I'm more of an idea rat."

(Incidentally, the noteworthy MemeStream is the number one response to a Google search for idea hawk.)

Even more interesting is how Indian firms are taking the skills they learned from outsourcing and using them to develop low-cost products for the low-wage Indian market.

India is putting high technology to work for the domestic market in the way that China has long put mass production technology to work for the export market.