Predicting The Future (continued)

From John Battelle's post on mobile search (not his 2006 predictions):

Watch mobile this year, I swear, some interesting things are happening. I saw something this week that blew my mind, but can't write about it for a little while.

Mobile is a platform that the current web giants don't control.  The carriers control it today, but are going to lose that control slowly and surely over the next several years.

This is a place where someone new can come in and shake things up.  Wifi is an important piece of the puzzle (as is wimax) but so are new software and services for mobile devices.

I agree with John, 2006 is going to be a very interesting year for mobile.

Comments

[Cyanbane]

I read that Batelle post earlier in the morning and I honestly thought it was wrong. I don't think that there is enough broadband services for most of the US's metro areas yet (Verizon vcast only in a few metros, Cingular 3G in 15 metros I think). Until we get faster coverage, people are not going to put up with slow sites (even mobile specific ones like live.com/mobile gmail) until another 2 years (2007) when it start to become the norm in most all major metro areas. I just don't think the speed is going to be in place in 2006. Will Google Wifi start hitting more metros than San Fran in 2006? Yes I think so, but I think it is going to be bogged down in Local Gov't red tape. Will we all be using handheld VOIP phones that work off a "buddy list" infastrucutre instead of phones numbers by 2010? I would bet on it. I just think 2006 is going to show as much advancement as 2005 did for the country as a whole. You are in NY, I am in Atlanta so we may see it faster than some, but from the majority of the US perspective, I don't think so.

[Marina Architect]

I read this and I got a nice rush. Last night it dawnwd on me that voice recognition technology (not VoIP) but voice recognition (think Dr. Lee from Google) could begin to interface to your mobile device finally.

While you are in a car or traveling this could be a must have. Also, I think a flash drive based 12" tablet PC or tablet Mac could be a breakout.

The flash drive is the key because it is rugged. If my notebook were more rugged and light considering I have a 17" with NVIDIA 256MB, then I would take it with me more.

A flash drive tablet PC with long battery life, you could just throw in in the back seat or if you are a woman in a large purse and grab it when you need. Notebooks are not nearly as versatile and Treo's are bullshit gadgets in my view.