The Increasingly Connected World – The Power of Mobile Technology

Sun, Oct 28, 2007

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I’m going to make a prediction – just like how the mobile phone has penetrated our lives, the laptop is going to do so as well.

Make no mistake about it – all the signs are there – people are going to get connected. With mobile broadband getting cheaper as well, and free wireless hotspots popping up all over the place, you’re going to see people opening up their laptops everywhere you go.

With this trend, gone will be the days where people walk aimlessly around the place, or sit around watching life go by. People are going to start doing work anywhere and everywhere they go. If you thought that life got busier; if you thought that the line between work-life and leisure-time got fuzzy; then you will need to adapt quickly, because all that is only going to get even more pronounced. Heck, even this post is typed out while I’m on my commute back home, and I’m not the only one of the bus using a laptop.

New social networks like Facebook will emerge, only that they’ll incorporate a strong use of mobile technology – finding out where you are, and where your friends are. With everyone “on the grid” all the time, you’ll start to see people with increasingly powerful smart phones as well, and a spike in location-based services.

How cool would it be to have your friends (all pre-approved, of course) able to tell your current location? You’d be able to discover who’s in the area. Parents will also be wanting to use this service to keep track of their children. Give their children a mobile phone, and they’ll never be out of touch – every parent would want to do so.

Miss someone? Wish someone was by yourside? With mobile wireless broadband, it’s so easy to talk to another person over the Internet through your laptop. You can even make a video call, or hold a video conference, and not just converse, but be able to see the opposite parties as well. Just how far away can you be, if you can open up your laptop, and instantly be connected with your loved ones, seeing them just like how you would in person.

Technology Trends:
1. Cheaper, even free mobile broadband so you’ll always be connected.
2. Proliferation of cheaper, and better performance laptops and smart phones.
3. Increasing lifespan of batteries. Think of day-long laptop battery life, so that chargers need not be carried around anymore.

I believe it will take as fast as 8-10 years to see all this well-established and in place, and it would be something that I’d look forward to seeing.

This post was written by:

Alvin - Alvin is a Singaporean who's interested in marketing, techy stuff and likes to just figure out how the two can work with each other. On top of his blog, you can also follow him on Twitter.

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