Speaking at the open Mobile Summit in London yesterday, Adobes CTO Kevin Lynch states what he thinks to be the continual rise of mobile internet and what this will mean to the Tech industry at large.
In a speech titled “Changing Media” Lynch gave a lecture that was quite general in scope but picked up on key areas such as the inevitable rise of Smart Phones and Tablets giving way to a shift in consumer behaviour, desires and expectations.
Internet use to quadruple by 2015
With Cisco predicting that Internet usage will increase by a factor of 4 by 2015, the move to mobile Internet will not see any slowing down during this period.
So is it emerging countries that will be using all this new found Internet bandwidth?
No. It will be the rise of the SmartPhone and Tablet market that sees connectivity flourish and access to the Internet become even more in demand wherever we are.
And to put some figures to the claim, Cisco predict that there will be 15 Billion “devices” connected to the Internet by this time, equating to 3 Billion users…though I struggle to see how this makes any sense, the figure is still huge.
(I assume “devices” is loosely used and could mean SatNav’s etc)
Technical questions:
With mobile broadband speeds increasing and SmartPhones being packed with dual core processing, it is easy to see why the power that will be contained will entice users to ditch the PC.
But will the size restrictions be too much for the masses?
Will battery life be increased enough to deliver a quality user experience?
Will the mass of people taking up more and more bandwidth cause a meltdown?
If the question is will more people use the Internet via other devices than a desktop PC….?
My answer would be, by 2013…Yes.
The key question is how do we use the world wide web?
The real fineries in all this is how normal people use the Internet.
I do not see power users switching to purely mobile devices as working at a desk is a good solution for computer professionals, and the power needed in future apps/software will be best suited to dedicated PC’s with larger processing power, and large quality screens much needed for editing, design, and development.
But many people are not on the Internet at work and these people will now be using the web on the way to work, in their spare time at work and when they are at home.
This is the key shift.
You can now Instant Message, Facebook, Tweet, Read, and Engage with the web to such a huge scale now that many people do not really need that desktop in the corner.
Question?.
If all you need from a PC is to log into Facebook, Email, buy stuff from Amazon, IM your friends in New Zealand, read the news, and browse the Internet in general.
Why do you now need a bulky PC?
This is a paradigm shift that is being discussed, and adopted globally, proven by the ever growing ubiquity of SmartPhones like the iPhone and Android based devices on HTC, Samsung etc and one that I personally feel is inevitable;.
The truth?
Most people are pretty general users of the Internet and they do not need desktops.
Start taking your money out of Microsoft now!
Over to you:
Does the obvious move to mobile Internet have you scared?
Or do you embrace the now easier way to connect with friends and family and browse the web freely?
Or does the mobile Internet you know not live up to expectations and leave you wanting more?
Tell us all!
Editorial Staff