Gartner Research Offers Insight To Probable Trends
Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT) is arguably the World’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Certainly people listen when they predict. Within the last month they offered an opinion entitled “iPad and Beyond: What the Future of Computing Holds” which suggests that the Tablet will largely replace the PC and that it will to a great degree replace what we currently call a SmartPhone.
What Did The iPad Accomplish?
The Apple iPad , and subsequently the Android tablet (ie. Samsung Galaxy tablet), was largely responsible for changing how we relate to our computer. It eliminated the qwerty keyboard in favor of touch screen technology.
In years to come Gartner predict enhancement of this freedom as we use voice recognition and even visible nuances to accelerate and enhance our capabilities.
What Will the Tablet Accomplish Next?
Possibly in some altered form as the current Smartphone and Tablet merge or morph. Gartner predict that the device will become the brain from which several of our specialized tools operate. Some are recognizable, the printed book is already threatened; others may as yet be unpredicted.
Gartner refer to your Smart Device, be it a Google Android smartphone or Apple’s iPhone, as your digital wallet.
Some examples of what you carry in your pocket today, which will be replaced:
- Your car key will be replaced by a command from you Smartphone
- Money and your Debit Card will be replaced as a purchasing tool
- Your Credit Card will be replaced by online money transfers
- All other “cards” be they loyalty, membership or security ID
- Your mobile phone may morph into a listening / speaking accesory
- Your Drivers License
- Insurance Cards
- Library Card
- Receipts
- Postage stamps
That leaves your pocket to hold a handkerchief or your handbag a lipstick.
Further Uses?
Gartner predict that most consumer electronics will also become controlled via interface with our mobile device, which will contain our individual security and our personal preferences. These include:
- Switching on the oven as you leave work
- Communicating navigation instructions to a screen built into your car
- Communicating with your in-car sound speakers
- Monitoring and recording data from a blood pressure cuff
How Will These Multiple Conveniences Be Accomplished?
Gartner quote Steve Prentice who wrote “Technology Trends That Matter”. He predicted several user interfaces that will help broaden the scope of a Device’s ability to benefit the educated, the uneducated and the disabled user in different ways. These include:
- Multi-touch interface aiding those unfamiliar with qwerty keyboards
- Handwritten instruction via recognition software (think of non western alphabets)
- Voice control instruction interface
- Multimodal interfaces (touch, pressure, gestures)
Conclusion
At UnlockWorldwide we believe that technological change will continue at a speed greater than commerce can absorb and beyond what the public request. There will be many commercial failures and then, quite unpredictably and possibly from some unprecedented source, a concept or a product will take off.
The world is also a complex mix of have’s and have not’s; a billion people in rapidly developing India demand a very different response to that of 400 million in the highly developed USA. Many Indian’s see mobile communication as potentially a great educational tool to help a populace hungry to learn and escape poverty.
Meanwhile in the West we struggle to educate some sectors of the population who choose to ignore education and prefer to exploit mobile devices like smartphones and tablets only for the escapist gratification offered by games.
In the end it will be market forces that decide the future; analysts predictions are at best an informed guess.