This piece was originally published by Creative Technology 365, on April 4th 2011.
While new, smaller and more powerful smartphones and tablets are great, innovations in mobile computing need to solve problems beyond the devices themselves. Our digital lives are made out of data so valuable, yet disorganized and out of hand when we want it. From pictures, to music, to driving directions… what if we could have it all, everywhere we go?
The world is changing, pretty fast. Not long ago, boarding a plane would force me to completely disconnect from the world and have an opportunity to read a good book or just relax. Now, with in-flight Wi-Fi becoming increasingly available, I don’t need to go dark every time I’m airborne. Conceivably, I could just ignore the fact that I can send out a tweet from 30,000 feet, but like most email addicts out there, I’m likely to give in.
That was the last refuge. Our daily lives are blanketed with wireless connectivity, which keeps us plugged in everywhere between work and home, so it is small wonder than eight out of nine product categories in top consumer electronics (DVD players being the ones left out), ship with Wi-Fi and/or cellular connectivity, while cloud computing and software as a service become a common practice among all kinds of businesses.
So, how long until technology is dependable enough to handle the gory details of interconnecting devices and applications, so that we can spend more time kicking back and enjoying the ride?
The evolution of mobility
Just a few years ago, when phones were for the most part dumb, the only mobile computing devices we carried around were our laptops. Back then, our purchase decisions were mainly driven by a laptop’s weight, but as more power and storage got packed into them, laptops eventually started to replace the tower computers we kept under our desks.
We still carry them around, between home and work, and when on the road — just in case we need to do real work, but the trend is towards needing our laptops less for our most mundane endeavors such as email, calendar, web browsing, etc., as they can be handled almost exclusively in the cloud.
While we spend hours working on our laptops, our phones can only capture our attention for a few minutes. In fact, the most successful mobile applications are the ones that allow users to complete extremely compartmentalized tasks in the least amount of time possible. Granted, some games might be the exception to the rule, but would you really read a whole book on your phone’s 3.5-inch screen if you had a better alternative?
Enter the tablet. With screen sizes that bridge the gap between our other devices, tablets are quickly making their way into our super-connected lives.
The size of a device is proportional to the amount of time we are willing to spend doing something on it, which in turn determines its mobility range. While we are likely to keep our phone in our pockets all day long and leave our laptops behind at our desks, tablets are better suited to be carried around in a very specific spatial context: between your desk and meetings at the office, around your house, the commuter train, inside a plane, etc.
However, our data is unlikely to move with us through all these different contexts, while we pick up different devices. Our need for mobility is shifting from being centered on the physical devices that allow us to carry data with us, to a new paradigm where our data is readily available wherever we go.
Mobility tomorrow
Consider this scenario:
Taking a weekend trip might have been in the back of your head for a while. As spring sets in, the weather is perfect to enjoy the outdoors. It is Friday night and while watching TV with the family, you see one of those spots promoting the VisitPA.com site and, suddenly, you got it: road trip (I live in Brooklyn, so…).
Pressing a button in your remote pushes the URL from the TV ad directly to the browser on your tablet, where you can explore your destination options further and use a map application to plan your route. Once you select your destination and mark it on the map, you receive a warning: you don’t have enough gas in your car to get you all the way there. Acknowledging the message takes you back to the map, which now shows you a number of recommended gas stations along your route and within range, as well as their current gas prices. You choose one, and your route is recalculated automatically. Next morning, when you get in the car, the GPS has already loaded your route and you are ready to go, just as soon as everyone buckles up.
If you think this is too far fetched, think again. Many of the pieces needed to bring this particular experience to life already exist, and everything a developer would need to do is connect the dots. Android phones can already receive URLs from a browser on a desktop computer, while GPS users can manage and share routes online, and Google Maps mashups exist for almost anything imaginable, including looking up gas prices near you. So, what are we missing?
I recently bought a TV and a Blu-ray Disc player from the same manufacturer and, after setting them up at home, I discovered that my favorite feature was how well they worked together: powering up the BD player not also turns on the TV as well, but also automatically selects the right HDMI input. The manufacturer did not advertise this little piece of magic, which probably made it even more special.
What if we could expect the same level of awareness between products from different manufacturers? What if there was a common platform that allowed devices to share data contextually and in meaningful ways? Perhaps the Android OS is on its way to become just that, as it moves from smartphones and tablets to other consumer electronics, including TVs and set top boxes. Another option is RIM’s QNX operating system, which before powering the Blackberry Playbook was embedded in a car, and can now connect both products seamlessly.
I like the idea of home automation like the next guy, but I would not trust my fridge to make the right choice of brand/price when we are running out of milk. I much rather have that shopping list available to me whenever I’m at the supermarket.
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