Data doesn't matter anymore, according to former head of Google SA Stafford Masie. “It's data manipulation and correlation that can produce amazing application sets.”
Speaking this week at the launch of start-up AIGS, Masie outlined his view of the future of ICT.
Last year, it was estimated that 63% of activity on smartphones is more data than voice.
“It's no longer a phone; it has become a mobile device. But it's not just a mobile device either, because it's not just about data. I believe that mobile devices have become what I call a mobile sensory platform, and data correlation platform.
“Mobile devices and tablets are becoming very rich rendering agents that have sensory capabilities, making them location and motion aware. And the data is coming down in a very relevant manner, more relevant than it ever has been,” says Masie.
“At the end of the day, enterprise architecture will have to look like the iPhone architecture, and like the Android architecture.”
Digital clash
Masie believes “a digital clash of civilisations” will occur in the next 36 months. “And it will affect the consumer fundamentally; it's going to change two industries fundamentally.
“I firmly believe the banking world and the telecommunications service provider are absolutely going to collapse into one.”
“Everyone wants the store value. The banks are starting to realise that they are going to have to move forward, because all of these emerging digital currencies don't really need banks other than for regulatory compliance.
“I'm forecasting that we're going to have a bloodbath between banks and mobile providers. Service providers are going to go from having users with mobile phones, to having users with credit cards, and they're going to want to get into the transaction game.
“They don't care about the content game, because they've lost the content game. They can't monetise it; they're just dumb pipes so they will be looking at how to instead localise and monetise transaction services.”
Driving change
Masie predicts this will be accelerated by the growth of near-field communication technology, such as that which will be seen in the next iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
“You will be able to do things with such ease. Swiping your phone to buy coffee, to get groceries at Pick n Pay, to withdraw money - all of these things aren't coming, they're here. As it has been said - the future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed.”
Masie added that a local bank is looking at introducing the Square application locally. Square allows for card payments via mobile devices, with a free credit card reading device that plugs into a phone or iPad. “It will change the game. Every person will be able to make instant transactions.
“The mobile world blows my mind - 1.4 billion people are online via PCs, while there are more than five billion phones in the world.”
That number translates into there being more phones than there are cars, televisions, PCs and credit cards in the world combined.
World on tap
Masie also explains that a new phenomenon is being recorded - every 12 to 13 months storage capacity on a device doubles, but its form factor stays exactly the same.
In the real world, this means that if one buys the biggest iPod today, with 180 Gigs, and fills it with music and hits play, it will play just over 16 years non-stop.
Masie also explained that carrying the formula forward, by the end of 2011, users will be able to carry an entire year of video on a single handheld device. By 2014, all commercial music ever produced by mankind will go onto a single device. By 2018, it will be possible to carry an entire lifetime (85 years) of video, and by 2020, all content ever created will be in the palm of one's hand.
“Architecturally, this is going to change everything,” says Masie. “Architectures are fundamentally changing from a technology perspective. We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short-term, but underestimate it in the long-term.”
Masie's book, “The Digital Clash of Civilisations”, is due for release in July.
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