itwAT&T announced today they will begin rollout of their 4G network to be completed by 2011. Verizon has begun deployments and will have 2 major cities completed by the end of this year with 25 to 30 markets completed by the end of 2010. This is an extremely important development to website owners, developers, and marketers as anything has ever hit the web.
I think a lot of technical professionals believe that this will make the mobile web better. To be specific, this will change mobility entirely. I read an article a while ago by Mikael Ricknas in Network World, "Verizon to roll out LTE in two US cities this year" where he pointed out a possibility of your digital camera to have intelligence enough to know when its memory is full and it will automatically upload the pictures to a networked computer for storage. In his article he was merely pointing out that there is an impact on other consumer products due to this bandwidth increase. I think his example is just the tip of the iceberg and it if one was a budding entrepreneur, they may want to have this change in technology in mind
The current bandwidth on the 3G network is 15 to 30 Mbit/sec. 4G will provide 100 Mbit/sec. This for almost everyone is faster than their home computer's DSL, Cable, or work LAN. You will be able to download an entire DVD in less than 5 minutes to your laptop. With these speeds, home users will really question whether they need a desktop computer at all. I think this has been a point of question for a while with the advancements of the 802.11x wifi technology.
So if the network providers such as AT&T and Verizon build it, the hardware innovators will come. I'm pretty sure that a pda such as Apple's Iphone, the Blackberry Storm, and Google's G-1 will soon be the norm not the exception. Web developers will now have to consider the mobile high definition user experience in various mobile screen resolutions as well as how it will appear in standard desktop and laptop environments. Website accessibility will be the key as to develop a site that can function across multiple platforms rather than trying to maintain different sites for different users.
One of my favorite commercials is when Avery Brooks, a spokesperson for IBM announced the phrase, "Where are my flying cars" in the year 2000. He was complaining that in many years before that was the biggest proclamation of what the future would have in store for us, but it had never arrived. So here are a few of my predictions of what is possible by lets say 2016 and hopefully I don't have any flying cars in this list:
- Automotive integration that will automatically provide service info to your online pda calendar.
- The end of "syncying" anything with a cable. Upload and dowloads anywhere, anytime.
- The end of personal music catalogues, really what's the point. Music Favorites on demand.
- More contextual browsing rather than text. Picture sliders, on demand, real-time content changes in your browser.
- Live video feeds will be as important as archived video feeds are now such as youtube.
- Social webs will be replaced by live one on one webs. Customer service will be live and in your 'face to face'.
- Remote Control will have a brand new meaning. I think I'll vaccuum the house, mow and water the lawn by my command and make sure no spots are missed while I finish my business reports.
- Product commentary on ecommerce sites could be replaced by audio and video commentary or even live interaction with other customers.
- Audio surfing the web. This has been a long time coming. But I want to drive in my flying car and get the latest and greatest albulm of my favorite artist and never take my eyes off of the road. Stream it to me baby!
- Finally, when we can play high def games live on our blackberries such as World of Warcraft. The end of productivity as we know it will have arrived. Oh yea....
To my point, I think we need to look beyond the iphone and to mobility as a whole. Nothing against the iphone, it has pushed us forward and I'm sure will continue to do so, but as bandwidth increases the possibilities get greater as well.
p.s. #11 Verizon may by then have an android powered phone or an iphone for me to use by 2016. C'mon guys how long does it take!?!