The Horizon report listed several critical technologies that need to be followed in terms of their impact to society in the future:
Mobile
Cloud computing
Personal Web
Geo
Smart-objects
Semantic aware applications
I have focused on mobile.
Mobile phone technology continues to advance at a fairly rapid pace. The advancements are occurring with the radio interface/protocol, the device user interface, and the delivery of content. The radio interface protocol for mobile phone technology has gone from analog, to digital (CDMA and GSM), and now to OFDMA/SCFDMA. Each of the advancements has further improved the spectral efficiency of the radio protocol by exploiting different dimensions of radio transmission. The first generations exploited frequency, time, and code space separately. The latest technology (OFDMA) exploits all three dimensions, achieving the highest spectral efficiency and getting very close to the theoretical limits of radio transmission. This is necessary because mobile phone adoption is increasing steadily, as is the adoption and use of mobile phone applications and service, both of which drive traffic on mobile phone networks. This adoption and increasing use of mobile phone applications is being drive by the tremendous advancements in mobile device user interfaces (touchscreens, widgest, etc.), which make it far easier for users to transmit and receive rich digital content.
One of the major trends to keep a close eye on is the migration and adoption of open mobile device operating systems. This trend is being given a big push by Google with their Android platform. This trend presents challenges and opportunities. The opportunities are in a greater array of mobile phones, which could spawn greater device innovation. The challenge with the open devices is ensuring a consistent user experience.
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf
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It will also be interesting to watch how the ecosystem for content development, content discovery and content delivery evolves around these open moible devices.
ReplyDeleteThese devices have opened up (no pun intended) new sources of revenue for several players and I am curious to see how the pie will be divided.
In addition, how will the carriers react to this paradigm shift wherein a tightly controlled ecosystem is open to all and sundry.
All an all it is going to be an interesting couple of years.
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ReplyDeleteAs mobiles continue to become more robust application platforms with increased bandwidth and ubiquitous connectivity, nomadic users may rely less on laptops and netbooks.
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