The mobile landscape of 2008 looks completely different than it did just two years ago, and experts predict the next few years will bring innovations that make communication through mobile devices even more pervasive.
B.J. Fogg, who runs the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, has spent the last decade looking at how technology changes attitudes and behaviors. The lab’s studies about text messaging and mobile usage have convinced him mobile technology will become the most persuasive method of reaching people in the years to come and will be tapped by political leaders, religious figures and advertisers.
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“If someone right now is running a company and doesn’t have a Web site, you think, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ That’s going to be the same thing you say if someone doesn’t know how their constituency uses mobile,” Fogg said.
Fogg says mobile platforms will be used to organize protests, mobilize supporters and influence voters during this year’s presidential campaign. Individuals will share viral clips about their candidate via phone, for example.
Fogg also thinks that location-based technology such as GPS will be used in more social scenarios. A mobile device might be able to tell when you have a friend nearby and urge you to go talk to her; your phone could alert you when you drive by your dry cleaners that your clothes are ready.
Mobile phones in the future could eliminate the need for credit cards, and potentially even car keys, as the U.S. follows the lead of countries such as Japan and Korea that have implemented mobile payment systems extensively, said Rob Forsyth, AT&T’s vice president and general manager for the D.C.- area wireless division.
Joel Evans of Geek.com said that mobile, GPS and voice recognition technology will soon overlap so people interact with phones as they do with individuals, asking what theirschedule looks like or requesting a latte from the Starbucks they’re about to drive past.
“All this stuff is so close; there’s no reason why it can’t be there,” Evans said.
Digital cameras could be another point of convergence. Envision a scenario where a photo taken on a camera will be automatically sent to a parent’s mobile when he or she can’t be at the family trip to the zoo, said Derek Kerton of The Kerton Group. He thinks laptops and cell phones will become almost interchangeable, with some individuals deciding not to have computers or pay for broadband service beyond their phones. Such a development could suggest it would be more efficient to provide smart phones rather than laptops to underdeveloped countries, he said.
“This could be a world-changing thing,” he said.
