Day: May 28, 2005

The Mobile Technology Weblog writes what Bill Gates should have said about mobile technology:

The key trends that we’ve had so far have been the computer itself, the desktop PC, which is where we came into the market. The internet, which we nearly missed, but managed to catch in time. And now mobile. Yes, mobile really is as important as that.

The most important digital device anyone will have will be their mobile (and let’s forget this artificial “consumer and business user” stuff for the moment). The phone will go everywhere with the user and this already happens today. But what’ll change is that it’ll become the primary means of accessing the net.

This net access is a very important point as it means that the user will be able to access all their personal data over their phone at high speed. That will mean that all data will be stored on the web – NOT on the phone or the PC, so the point about synching PC’s and phones is no longer relevant in the future.

By data, I mean everything from personal holidays snaps, your sms’s, address book and everything else, including the Word and Excel documents you need for work.

The other key driver for this is the developing nations, like India, China and Africa. People there have leapfrogged over the PC in the development cycle and started using phones as their primary digital device. This will lead to approximately a billion mobile phones sold in the next 5 years, which is bound to impact on the West in ways that we simply can’t anticipate right now.

But it’ll mean that mobile moves from the periphery to the very centre of the digital world.

Forbes writes:

Still using your cell phone just to make phone calls? How pass.

If the seers are correct, within a year your cell phone will be capable of live television, music downloads and playback, videogames, storing movie clips and viewing everything from photo albums to digital home movies. In short, more than you may have ever thought possible.

Of course, there are high hurdles to clear before all this great stuff happens–complex rights agreements, conflicting technology standards and the sometimes fractious relationship between carriers and content providers–but everyone involved has a stake in making it work. How big a stake? It’s almost too big to put a number on.

Pacific Crest Securities, which hosted a mobile entertainment conference in New York on May 6, believes the sector will be the next driver for growth in the technology industry, and the dominant investment opportunity for the next decade.