In the grand scheme of things, it was not too long ago that mobile was an amazing feat of technology and engineering. Carrying around a phone, now more of a microcomputer, the size of your palm seemed almost laughable, only the stuff of science fiction. It is still an amazing accomplishment, especially given how far we have come in such a short time from the days when mobile first entered the mainstream. But now mobile has pretty much taken over the world. And it shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. The future of the world is primed to be a completely mobile one.
Technology continues to push us into this mobile world. We can access more, experience more, and see more wherever we are in the world, more than we ever could before. The technologies below are helping lead us into a more mobile future.
AR has been in the news a lot lately. Time will tell if it is the next great step in mobile technology or just a fad. In 2014, the World Cup allowed users with a webcam to head corner kicks. More recently, you probably could not escape hearing about Pokémon Go and how many millions of users it had on a daily basis.
It seems you can’t go to any social media site without seeing multiple videos. Videos are useful because they provide an immediate way to get immersive and authentic insight into a person or company. Immediacy is the advantage most thought of as Facebook Live and Live.ly become more standard.
Authenticity is the next step and why many users have flocked to Snapchat and Instagram video. The content seems more spontaneous and unfiltered, making it seem more authentic. Beme, for example, takes authenticity to a new level as it blacks out the screen when people are recording so there is no way to edit and select a certain self.
In terms of immersion, there are some apps that provide video that makes it feel like you are there watching, but the next step is to make you feel like you are there participating. Snapchat’s Story Explorer does this well by allowing people to swipe through Snaps so they can see something from different perspectives. To take images and videos more immersive we may come to a point where those 2D immersive experiences will go the next step and become VR experiences with new mobile technologies.
It is becoming more and more common to see VR video either with monoscopic (2D) 180° video or sometimes even with stereoscopic (3D) 360° video. In the near future, we will be looking at light-filed videos. These would enable the viewer to move around a scene without any restrictions. AT&T recently offered customers the chance to use the Oculus - Samsung Gear VR to experience a cruise ship vacation in VR. Around the same time, Verizon began offering Samsung Gear VR with certain Galaxy phones. This allowed customers to play games, socialize with friends, and watch movies in a VR environment.
5G technology is not here yet, but in the coming years, it will be the next major driver of change in mobile devices. The increased speed of data transfer will allow gigabits of data to travel between devices in seconds. That means that users can access large amounts of information within seconds. This mobile technology directly impacts the evolution of IoT. With more data traveling at faster speeds, more devices will be able to become smart devices. This will allow more data to be shared remotely. All of the mobile technology we already have and all of it that is yet to come, according to some studies, leads to increases in productivity.
There are also many other mobile technologies that are very important for businesses and consumers.
There are still many unknowns about how much technology can advance in the realm of mobile. But one thing seems clear: mobile is not going away anytime soon. We will continue to see growth in the mobile market as technology advances. Let’s just hope we can all keep up.