Why mobile matters - An incomplete mobile history

This was an eventful week in mobile tech. I spent Wednesday and Thursday watching as much of Google's IO 2014 conference, hoping to catch a glimpse of where the future of mobile may be headed. I even live tweeted the keynote. Follow @cyber_jurist It was pretty interesting to see how one of the mobile giants is attempting, as so many of them have before, to capture our attention on pretty much every screen they can. The Google team put on a good presentation, showing how they plan to evolve Android as a platform as well as Google services to be useful, present and automatic almost everywhere we go in our everyday life. That is a crazy concept. Then I got to thinking of how far the technology has evolved before my eyes (and in my pockets and bags).

Family members present: PS Vita, PSP Slim, Gameboy Color, HP Windows Mobile PDA, Asus EEEpad Transformer, Nexus 7 2012, Sony-Ericsson Smartwatch, Metawatch, Nokia 8310, HTC Windows Mobile slider, Sony-Ericsson Xperia X1, Nexus One, HTC Evo 3d, Nexus 4, Nexus 5

I also happen to be unpacking from a recent move, and had to put away many of my older gadgets. So, I decided to do a family picture. These are the surviving members of the group, as many of their siblings have since been given away. (The worst damaged one is my current phone, the nexus 5 in the bottom right. Gravity, you are a harsh mistress!) I've kept the rest, mostly as a reminder of how far the tech has evolved.

It's pretty staggering.

At the same time, I recall thinking that the potential was always there for this connected lifestyle. Android wear, which was announced earlier this year and demoed during IO, is not a new idea, now are smart watches, as evidenced by my 2 now disused smart watches included in the image. Portable gaming is similarly an ancient concept, and these examples don't even begin to do that topic justice. These ideas have evolved but not in a revolutionary manner. The improvements have been incremental, and have taken many steps to get from the old, reliable and famously indestructible Nokia all the way to the battered, 6 month old Nexus 5. I've (obviously) been anxious to personally experience the bleeding edge tech before it hits the masses. I've tinkered. I've bricked. I've recovered, reflashed and restored. 

Today, I asked myself why.

Now, there are multiple answers to this question, but the main one, the one that makes me anxious to see the next evolution, is that I'm impatient. As a kid, I watched shows like the Jetsons and Star Trek, I read books like Ender's game, I played video games like X-com and Halo, amongst other. And I began to see it. A vision of the future, sponsored by your favourite media creators that promised a brighter, easier and more accessible future. One that was available to everyone, and depended mainly on ones willingness to learn and adapt. A future where the layperson, the pauper, and the lazy person would have a similar access to the same information and eventually the same standard of living as the expert, the rich, and the assertive. So long as any one of them were willing to learn.

Smartphones! Everyone's got at least one.

And then I began to see science fiction become science fact. I saw devices converge into mini computers that people always have with them which now continuously connected to much more capable computers. I saw the proliferation of these devices, first from the tech evangelists (not unlike myself) to the avant garde to the common person, to those less likely to seek it out. I've seen the conversion of the nay-sayers from complete denial of the potential to comfortably integrating it into their daily lives, to becoming power users with custom macros to squeeze every ounce of potential out of their devices, either for work or for play. It's been an interesting journey with lots to see and experience along the way.

What I see now, and further realized last week, is that we are fast approaching a critical mass where great things are possible. We have the proliferation of multi-function devices that may be tailored to specific use cases or just left generic, that are all able to take advantage of the same or similar quality apps and services. All the newer devices are for the most part wireless, independent, yet still connected. They can be used almost anywhere and by almost anybody. They are beginning to unify the user experience and leverage existing networks (both in the computer and the social sense) so that users have access to the exact same content from different avenues. The services themselves are also becoming increasingly  platform agnostic. Users can choose how they want to access any of this, be it from a laptop, phone, television, watch, etc. Now, the services ate attempting to predict the content you want and provide it to you before you ask for it. I for one have enjoyed the intuitive, less disruptive addition of smart watches' glanceable notifications, hampered only by insufficient software. To know that this is about to be improved by the same insight that is responsible for typing prediction and Google Now... list keeps on growing.

Can we escape it? Probably not. The momentum is now in full swing. Websites and mobile apps abound, and are becoming a preferred way of doing business in many applications. For those who don't have access to more sophisticated and expensive hardware, mobile is the great equalizer, with the cloud enabling almost limitless potential. For developers, it creates great opportunity for monetizing your app instead of coding just for kicks. Most importantly, Now is the time when the real innovation begins, when the potential of all these devices, their capabilities, inter-connectivity and cloud computing all begin to be optimized so that the average user can take full advantage of the power at their fingertips. This is when the magic happens.

Phone facilitated Retinal exams? It's a thing. (Courtesy of Global News)

I see reason for excitement. 

Moreover, I see opportunity. Opportunity for everyone, at every level of the chain to benefit, fostered by connectivity and capable hardware. Seizing these opportunities means a few things. It means adapting to the current environment. It means changing the way users think of their apps and online services. It means taking the privacy and choice to opt in (or out, accordingly) seriously by developers. It means respecting the power of the platforms in use. It means adapting our laws and our understanding of how the rights of every party are engaged and ensuring protection for any vulnerable groups. Finally, it means that if the mobile industry as a whole, from manufacturers to developers to users, can take advantage of all those factors plus any other pertinent ones, then the sky is the limit for the benefits each player can reap from this.

Do you see the potential yet? Let's start the dialogue on your thoughts on where mobile is headed.