The future – mobile, apps, marketing, life in general

October 11, 2011

Shame on me for not posting this last week when I originally got it together. Would have been ‘amazing’ with the 4Gs release….

In Vegas, we had one of the chief digital strategist speak as keynote at WSI E&I 2011. He talked about the future and specifically how to predict the future without predicting the future; theories, probabilities, ideas, etc, without saying what it actually meant. Which is a tough thing to predict in my opinion; keep it vague and open ended enough to be sure you’re right. I have no doubt he is right 99% of the time, brilliant guy, successful businessman, and a great speaker.

I’ll take my chances at predicting the real future, with some key ideas that you can agree with or not. Make sure to comment with your ideas and thoughts.

Your mobile device will be your PC as you know it

A  colleague, sprint employee, mentioned this idea early tonight, and I have to agree 100%.

I like to think he has an inside track, but he doesn’t. He simply sells a lot of phones and has seen 4 years worth of practice and knows that users want to accomplish more on their phones (devices), than ever before.

But why not?

• We’re moving to the cloud. Period. Essentially all we need is an access point to the videos/music/data that we own (or rent).
• Netflix just decided to kill the outdated process of actually mailing movies out
• Most of our documentation (twitter / Facebook updates / photos / texts ) goes through a web based service / app
• Keyboards for iPads, and mini-netbooks connecting to phones…we’re already there, however they’ll be holograms and/or air responsive keyboards (check out the patent from apple)

Machine 2 machine with data mining and artificial intelligence will be great, not scary.

Machine to machine will be the future, just embrace it. In my mind it sounds incredibly scary, but what if it delivers a better interactive experience? Er, better life experience. Quicker, faster, easier…. Makes sense doesn’t it.

We all really like things being customized for us. So think about it for a second…

Your device (or preferred web applications) knows:

• Websites, topics, articles, etc. that you like
• Buying patterns, brands, stores, locations
• Your sharing habits, topics, photos, locations (so what if I have a cute baby, and she gets posted a lot)

And all of these components will be sharing data, and slowly getting smarter and figuring out your habits and what you like.

Why couldn’t your device suggest a new restaurant, nearby, that your friends and people you trust like, that you’re sure to enjoy, check your calendar and bank account, and make a reservation.

And then just let you know and enjoy.

Location Location Location ( yes your device will know)

Let’s agree that your device will know where you are. Not in the same way that I’m at 67th and Lamar, but in the way that it knows I’m in my living room, not my office (25 ft away) and knows my browsing preferences are dramatically different at that location.

With this location detection, apps and notifications will provide real value.

For example, my ‘grocery app’ will know where I am in the store and remind me that I need toilet paper (because it only shows up every 3rd week).

3D will change everything. Seriously

I’m a web designer at heart, and the 3D web scares me. That’s a whole other dimension to think about which is beyond different devices, resolutions, and operating systems. However, this weekend I played with the 3d phone.

It was awesome.

Awkward at first, but very futuristic. But a million people have reviewed 3d phones, so where is this heading for us?

• Products in life size and three dimensions
• Augmented reality x 3d x projectors =  (I can’t predict what this will entail)

Apps will become smarter and centralized

Apps are not going away. As much as I love mobile based apps and websites, we’ll  continue to adapt to smaller applications performing a single function well. I remember reading about this years ago and the fall of the monopolies like Microsoft.

Tasks, functions, and applications will get smaller and more efficient.

And they did. However, that’s great, but now they’ll move back, and get better.

• There will be ‘group’ apps. They all connect seamlessly, and share information
• They’ll manage that information, automatically.
• Companies will have apps that manage all internal functions. (Our app would include Harvest, basecamp, Google suite, social media bundle…)
• ERPs, CRMs, and data management will only occur via an app.

What does this mean for your business (you) and digital marketing (me)?

• We’ve gone mobile. Embrace it. Figure it out. Be ready
• We’re moving faster than ever before. People, technology and adaptation. This will only increase, and get quicker (those kids powering this are not staying the same age)
• All data will be served and dependent upon your location
• When 3d comes around, use it wisely. (animated gif anyone?)
• Don’t ‘get an app’ to have an app. Get an app with true purpose providing a value to your customer or company