Mobility is the Fifth Wave
Mobility applications and services are forecast to exceed $250 billion in 2010. Mobility is defined by the convergence of the internet, enterprise and communications infrastructure. Four previous technology cycles have built the foundation for Mobility, the Fifth Wave. Billions of dollars of value will be created and re-deployed across industries as diverse as financial services, health care, entertainment and manufacturing. The mobile device is becoming the primary device for computing and communications driven primarily by youth, people in emerging economies and nomadic workers. In business, Mobility is enabling and empowering a more virtual and distributed enterprise. Mobility will drive technology investment and deployment over the next twenty years.

The All Digital World
The world is going digital – books, music, video, photos, real estate, contracts, curriculum, reviews, medical records, travel, and more. 312 billion digital images were captured, stored, or shared in 2005. Advances in technology and manufacturing have created the $500 computer and the ability to store 40,000 digital photos on a drive the size of your thumb. By 2010, the cost of RFID tags will approach a penny and enable manufacturers to track goods from the shop floor to the store shelf. Retailers, transport companies and manufacturers will need to invest and deploy sensory and wireless networks in order to compete. Entertainment and network companies will need to offer real-time film, news, sports, and games to a diverse and multi-device enabled consumer base.

We are witnessing an explosion of digital content on our public networks and inside the enterprise as application transaction volume and complexity increases and as regulatory requirements ratchet up. And it is all searchable. Google provides over a trillion searches per year to the world’s largest online database. The cost of storage has dropped so dramatically that people no longer think about deleting old emails or files. Today’s youth will find the yellow pages, paper files, photo albums, CDs and DVDs antiquated by the time they attend college.

Over the last decade, billions of dollars were spent on wireless and optical networks, providing the pipes to move all of this digital content around the globe. The world converged on IP as the standard protocol for communication, knitting together wireless and wireline networks. We are creating an immediate world in which people are connected and available, and a searchable and annotated world in which you can “point and click” on objects as well as people.

And yet, we still have isolated silos of content and billions of people around the globe who do not have broadband connections, PCs in their homes, or access to the world’s online superstore, Amazon.com or the world’s flea market, eBay. What they do have in growing numbers, is a cellular phone or some type of mobile device. Mobility platforms, applications, and services will deliver access to the network and a shared, real-time, secure experience.

Markets are global. People are mobile.
We are moving aggressively towards a fully-connected world, technologically and economically. Technology development is increasingly getting outsourced to India and Eastern Europe. Manufacturing has moved to Asia. Workers are increasingly mobile as they execute global business strategies. Developing country governments are committed to deploying the most advanced wireless networks. Wireless coverage and applications are more advanced in Korea, for example, than in North America today. China is deploying WiMax, a wireless broadband technology that leapfrogs WiFi, enabling 20 times the available wireless bandwidth today.

Today there are close to 2 billion cellular phones worldwide with 2010 forecasts ranging from 2.8 to 3.4 billion. In 2009, forecasters project 1 billion next-generation cellular phone shipments worldwide. Next-generation phones will be equipped with location technology, video capability, digital cameras, IP addressability, peer-to-peer wireless technology like Bluetooth, and more importantly, intelligent software. Today, mobile devices enable people to play games and communicate on a SONY Playstation with thousands of other players around the globe or listen to digital music, watch TV episodes, message with groups, and share digital photos or videoconference with friends and family on an iPod or cell phone. In the foreseeable future, mobile devices will allow access to ubiquitous displays in cars, stores and airplanes to access digital content anytime anywhere in the world.

There is an opportunity to deliver everything from mobile payment and remote health care to education on a mobile device in developing countries, and to deliver more advanced applications in mobile commerce, entertainment and business collaboration in developed countries.

People are social.
We are entering an era of true technology-brokered collaboration, empowerment, and self-expression. Mobile technology in a connected world will enable people to capture and share their life experiences in a near real time, ongoing and evolving dialog with groups and communities that they care about. People want to do more than simply talk, email, and share digital photos. People want to express themselves creatively, tell their stories, and connect with the world. 70 thousand new blogs are being created every day. Close to half of all North American youth today have an online profile and are heavy users of services like FaceBook and MySpace where they can control and share how they present themselves to peers and strangers alike. Instant messaging is the lifeline of youth worldwide. Users want immediate, personalized communication and content sharing. Youth today cannot imagine life without their mobile companion, their always on connection to the digital world around them.

Consumers today are empowered not only by the explosion of choice and information but the ability to search, customize and personalize their purchases. Mobile workers expect the enterprise to be more responsive to their needs as they conduct business around the globe and down the block. To effectively compete, the nomadic worker will require access to relevant and timely information in order to tailor products and services for their demanding customers.