What will the big thing in 2008 be?
January 27, 2008
As loathed as I am, or should be, to make New Year's predictions, this year the temptation is a bit strong this time round. With Vodafone's liberalization of Internet data charges last year and the rush that many of the mobile operators have made into broadband it looks increasingly likely that the message has gotten through that the main thing stifling mobile Internet use is cost (a difficult message given that if you're likely to make decisions on such an issue, chances are you've not seen a mobile phone bill in years).
It's actually kind of exciting as the last time I felt something like this was about ten years ago as ecommerce was on the verge of going mainstream. Many were still unsure if it was here to stay, but it was rapidly becoming apparent that Pandora's box was well and truly open on that one.
So, my tentative prediction is that 2008 will be the year of the mobile Internet, or more correctly data services which would include not only mobile Internet, but mobile TV, VoIP and any application that can use TCP/IP services. As such expect to see an increase in surfing, the emergence of mobile social networking sites and applications, uptake in new mobile media and the ability to access everything we can access on the Web on our mobiles to even a limited extent.
All we need now is for mobile payments to become a reality and that's when the fun really begins...
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