I’ve been quite intrigued by the conversation that’s been developing about the future of mobile. It started with Fred Wilson’s post about Rethinking Mobile First. As usual, I have my own opinions on the topic. Here’s what I posted in the comments on Fred’s blog:
The future I see is a world where my phone is my laptop. I walk into my office and my phone connects over something like bluetooth to my monitor, keyboard and mouse. Mobile devices already have enough computing power for just about everything I need & that is only increasing. The CPU in my iPhone is better than the laptop I had 5 years ago. In a couple years it won’t make sense to have both a phone and a laptop/desktop anymore. A laptop is just a bulky phone that can’t make phone calls. The part about mobile that sucks most is the interface. I don’t want to stare at a tiny screen. I don’t want to type on a piece of glass. The UI will have to adapt based on the screen site, but we already have everything else we need. Mobile = Desktop. Sometimes I’ll be connected to a screen/keyboard. Sometimes I won’t be.
Or better yet, I hope Brad Feld is right that we’ll all be using Google Glasses instead.
Well said. In five years there will be no distinction between devices – just different form factors. And they damn well better all be transparently connected to each other.
i like that vision, Josh. It's also consistent with Dave Morin's line about the disintegration between online and offline. Instead, we now have awake and asleep (i.e. connected or not > http://qr.ae/1rNtG). Ironically, i think Dave was talking about mobile-only driving this disintegration. I prefer your description of a mobile-*enabled* world, which powers UX's that adapt to whatever screen size i happen to be viewing right now. I've been thinking about this awake/asleep world in the context of advertising (my DNA, here: http://tobiaspeggs.tumblr.com/post/32941678899/fa… but obviously the implications – as you hint at – are much wider than that. I'm looking forward to seeing your thinking develop on this one…
Great point. We really need to grab coffee one of these days (any plans to be in the valley?). I share your fascination with how marketing is changing. There is so much potential that is still untapped.