Good Morning! It’s a whole new world out there today. I just thought I would let you know. When there is a paradigm shift, we don’t always see it coming. For instance, when the world shifted from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance period, the people of the world didn’t notice until some 400 years after it happened. Change is imperceptible. It remains that way until the environment we are immersed in begins to think and act with the change. To be more specific, we continue to apply old rules to problems until we are sure that the old rules no longer apply. How do we know they no longer apply?
We begin to suffer.
We live in an increasingly mobile world. According to recent studies, one in four households are cellphone only. Of those that have cell phones, 40 percent of those are what we refer to as “SmartPhones.” What is driving the use of Smartphones? First I claim biology. Our bodies are limited by what we can do without technology. Second, I claim sociology. We see others (friends, family, colleagues) using technology, now readily available and we marvel about how much more convenient and practical they are able to move in the world with one of these devices.
Assuming this all sounds reasonable, how are we suffering? Consumers are noticing and demanding this technology, businesses aren’t readily listening fast enough.
Case in point: The iPhone and AT&T.
According to the latest AdMob report, the iPhone accounts for 50% of all Web traffic coming from a “SmartPhone.”
Ad Mob Metrics - SmartPhone Requests
Also, the iPhone has capabilities embedded in the device that AT&T can’t allow because of the breakdowns they are experiencing with their network. Only in September did AT&T make available, a seemingly basic ability, picture messaging. Tethering with the iPhone (the ability to use the iPhone as a modem for a laptop) while existing on the iPhone as evidenced through hacks, won’t be available officially until sometime in 2010.
We are living a lifestyle the world isn’t quite ready for. Consumer demand is a pandora’s box that can’t be reversed. What does this mean for our future? Come back tomorrow and I’ll help you notice what I speculate this will mean for our future.
Agreed. Well-done. Could not agree with you more. The iPad is going to be interesting-although it will not be widely accepted, like the iPhone before it, it will help many of us visualize the web, in a mobile sense, like no other laptop or netbook in the past.
Thanks again!