Mobile Internet - or the use of wireless communication to access network-based information and applications from mobile devices - is the primary new technology that will be refined and deployed over the next two years, says PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The forecast is the key finding of interviews conducted by PwC`s Technology Centre, which has been pushing its Technology Forecast since 1988. Executive directors and chief officers of the Vodafone Group, Ericsson, Openwave Systems, NTT DoCoMo and Siebel Systems were among the interview subjects.
Richard Mackinnon-Little, a partner in PwC`s Management Consulting Services, explains that PwC`s projection that mobile Internet will spring the fore is the result of convergence in trends in enabling technologies.
The success of mobile computing devices, the ubiquity of mobile voice handsets and improved wireless data technologies are among these trends, given impetus and credibility by early applications, such as NTT DoCoMo`s i-mode service in Japan, and the widespread use of SMS messaging in Europe.
The forecast predicts that business-to-everything (B2E) initiatives or technology applications are on the rise and will enable companies to leverage enterprise systems and increase productivity and efficiency of an increasingly mobile workforce.
There will be a proliferation of new handheld computing and data communications devices during the next few years. Wireless access to network services will supplant personal information management as the key function of these devices.
Successful applications for the mobile Internet will be those that take advantage of the unique characteristics of the mobile environment. Location-based services - services that take account of where the user is located - will be a key area of innovation.
A primary factor in the adoption of mobile Internet access is the ability for mobile users to take advantage of "niche" (idle) time while outside the home or office.
Concerns about the privacy implications of location-based services will become widespread, leading to the development of privacy standards and privacy-enhancing technology. Carriers will need to offer location blocking as an option, much as they offer caller-ID-blocking as an option in many countries. As a result of these concerns, location-based services almost always will be offered on an opt-in basis.
SA is in a unique position of being an aftermarket that has achieved greater mobile device penetration figures than countries as developed as the States. It helps that SA is an aftermarket, says PwC, because that means the country can just dive in without fear of being burnt by trends that do not materialise, or that fail miserably.
Mobile Internet, which will use both carrier networks and wireless LANs, is the lead dog in a pack of six other markets that will see significant shifts over the same period.
These include continued progress in semiconductors, storage and communications, increased competition in the server market, a rise in network services, the move towards portals providing user interfaces, an enhanced development process thanks to new components, and lastly, the catalyst of e-business requirements driving software trends.
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