When do you know that a technology has not only reached the main stream but that virtually everyone uses it? I think that stage is reached when not only kids are "doing it" but the 60+ generation as well.
Only a couple of years ago my mother was saying "yes, I have a mobile phone but I don't like it and it's only lying around at home and dust is settling on it". Now in 2009, she's sending me SMS messages on a regular basis and even admits that it is fun. (!?)
Why this change of heart I asked her? "Well", she said, "all my friends send me text messages these days, so I do it too now and it's great fun". Incredible, generation 60+ is using SMS now and they like it. And all of that despite the horrible user interface of a mobile phone, especially for people who keep insisting that the TV remote control is too complicated. I am amazed!
Very nice presentation Martin.
Perhaps the way we look at the wireless network should change:
Its commonly put in terms as a separate network with the connection to other networks through back haul. That is as if the ‘rest of the network’ is a necessary evil rather than the integral part of overall ICT development.
Both the IT/PC/Internet industry and the ‘mobile’ industry need to come to grips that both worlds are increasingly important to the other.
Back haul and femtocells are significant developments that are barriers and opportunities to building networks to deliver services. But these are pieces of the broader puzzle that is being crafted in wireless and wired network standards and commercial developments… they both go hand in hand as enablers of broadband and unified connectivity solutions.
For example, cloud computing would not be feasible if not an outcrop of development in wired networks. That both presents an exciting but also disruptive element of evolution to wireless networks and a counterpoint opportunity for Internet, IT industry participants.
While commercial rivalries often result in elaboration of differences, it would be folly not to seek synergies and opportunities from all aspects of development.