On the Move

We can safely say by 2014 that there will be seismic advances in battery power and storage capacity of handheld devices. Already we are seeing vast improvements in these areas. Wireless Internet access will also have improved beyond recognition. In five years it will no longer be about 3G but 4G, otherwise known as WiMax or WiFi on steroids. Not only will this be eight times faster than 3G, but it will also be considerably cheaper.

We'll keep seeing our handheld devices getting smaller, thinner and lighter. There will be a sharp increase in the amount of HIP's, or highly intuitive products, that will incorporate the latest advancements in voice recognition, electronic ink and scroll-out displays, touch screens, image recognition (augmented reality) and correlation-based software.

For example, in five years mobile phones will have satellite navigation and correlation-based information so users know where they are and what's around them, enabling them to search for anything relevant. And search will be much more dynamic too; results will be tailored to our exact needs with, for instance, information presented as videos, tables, charts, animations and databases. Early examples of this can be seen with MSN's Bing and Google Squared.

Which Technology Will 'Liberate' the Consumer?

Predicting what technology will really captivate consumers and change the media market is not always easy. While technologists love complex technology with all the bells and whistles, consumers just want apps that make their lives easier. Whether consumers know it or not, they are on a quest to be everywhere, with everyone, with everything, at every moment. Any piece of technology that has ever been successful has, in some way, moved the consumer one step further on this journey.

The surprise success of SMS texting technology is a prime example of this. Technologists rubbished the primitive, limited, text-only technology, but consumers couldn't move their fingers quick enough around their mobile keypads, rapidly inventing a text short-hand language.

Why did this basic black-and-white messaging system of only 160 characters resonate so strongly with the consumer? Because it offered them a quantum leap in communication: near-instantaneous, non-verbal communication on the move. You could say that SMS text messaging liberated consumers. We believe the level of success of a technology is directly related to the level to which it liberates the consumer.

But which technologies will prove most liberating in five years' time? If we can answer this question, we can determine what the media landscape will look like in 2014. In our opinion, the most liberating technologies will be those that blur traditional boundaries, such as the mobile phone and the PC or the TV and the Internet. The most successful media and media technology will be those that reflect the fluidity of human nature, which is not fixed into separate compartments.