Sunday, April 26, 2009

Future Technology Trends - Mobile Platforms

It would be a cliche if i say that internet has radically changed the way we lead our lives, it has dominated the way we access, assimilate and make use of information. There has been various changes that web has gone through from its humble beginnings till the latest chrome age. But accessing web through PC's and Laptop's poses a physical constraint 'the presense'. Web is ubiquitious and why it should be constrained towards static devices.
The age of perceiving internet synonymous with the browser is quite over and applications have started emerging which treat internet as a cloud and have their own interfaces (non browser) and offer generic or unique functionality, iTunes being a classical example. But for those who are on the move and still want to leverage internet? Mobile has been the answer.
But Mobile has had its fair load of issues, from cranky interfaces and screens that required a magnifying lens and download speeds of a snail moving from london to paris. But with the advent of the high speed internet and devices like iPhone, mobile devices have evolved disruptively. iPhone has been an answer for those anti-convergence pundits who argued against the possibility of mobile devices with multiple capabilities like phone, browsing, camera etc.
With the emergence of social media networks which has become an inherent part of our lives (with most of us becoming compulsive tweeterers) , online community exists in groups with common preferences , staying in touch and responding to opportunity necessiates a device that is easy to carry and workwith.
At present i think the closest device is iPhone with its elegant interface and numerous innovative applications takes the mobile platform to the next stage. Though iPhone is far from perfect , it is stretching the imagination of what could be done with a mobile platform especially the api access (though with the restriction of mac only development) enables one to look forward into the future and build something creatively.
Mobile platform which is at its infancy is definitely going to take giant leaps and is going to revolutionalize the way we act ( i was tweeting while walking on the oxford street yesterday using free twitterfon, which posts my tweets using the REST webservices published by twitter.com on a 3G network,  app in my iPhone)
So all of those who are struck with the laptops and pc's , wake up now. The future has compacted itself into mobile devices and is going to fly away from your reach