| Chapter 1: | The Evolution of Mobile Internet Communications |
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‘keys’ that establishes an identity, and what we know as ‘Internet access’ today becomes something…you just walk up to, part of the surroundings. You’d walk up ‘close’ to a display surface, and it would know who you are by pinging your phone/wallet/[whatever].”
Mike Treder, executive director of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology and an expert on the social implications of emerging technologies, responded, “It shows a lack of imagination to assume that mobile phones as we know them today will still exist in 2020. While I agree that desktop computers will no longer be the standard interface for Internet connection by then, it seems far more probable to me that some form of ubiquitous wireless communication that goes beyond today's mobile phones will have taken over.”
An anonymous respondent wrote, “We’ll all have our own personal information communicators. Mobile phones may well have changed to be small voice-activated devices which sit behind your ear to which you give voice commands, e.g., ‘Phone Tom,’ ‘Google Search: how to salsa,’ ‘weather for London,’ ‘train times to Liverpool on Wednesday,’ etc.”
Another respondent wrote, “I don't know if we will only be using mobile phones in 2020. I am hoping for some sort of paper-thin, flat mobile device that is like the eBook or Kindle but can do much, much more than just display a book, but also get the daily paper and act as a touchscreen computer. Or, ideally, we will have come up with materials that can change shape according to whatever we need the mobile device to do. It can be long and thin for phone calls but wide enough with a keyboard for typing. It wouldn’t just be mobile phone origami—which we sort of have already—but something much more comprehensive and flexible and durable.”
Hamish MacEwan, a consultant at Open Ict in New Zealand, enthusiastically saw an edges-oriented future. “The mobile Internet will dominate usage, but the device will be very different in 13 years from our concept of a ‘mobile phone,’” he explained. “So will the providers of connectivity, and another group will provide the services and content. Universal standards will not control access, already WiMAX and other nonproprietary standards are being deployed in competition and