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Forrester Examines Mobile Future

‘Internet innovation is incubating in the mobile crucible’

Forrester Research recently released a paper that takes a crack at trends in mobile.

According to the executive summary, “The future of the Internet is now being shaped on new mobile networks and ever-smarter mobile devices: smartphones and tablets.” It said the recent Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona “showed that new partners and greater device support have resulted in Near Field Communications (NFC) gaining ground. Mobile operators announced ecosystem strategies that extend onto the Internet. Mobile devices have become even smarter and are set to greatly narrow the gap in performance with the PC in the coming year as quad-core tablets boasting game console-quality graphics supersede dual-core tablets and smartphones. Tablets, particularly Android-branded devices, were everywhere, as smartphone makers applied their expertise to these similarly miniaturized, highly mobile devices. Digital product creators demonstrated augmented reality apps, 3D video games, digital magazines, and numerous other apps and services that leverage the capabilities of these smarter devices.”

The findings should be of interest to those in the radio broadcast business. Its main conclusion, probably obvious, is that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs are going to continue to proliferate, improve in quality and expand what they can do; smartphones are getting smarter, it notes. A huge industry devoted to this endeavor is building. Much of this future is unpredictable and products, services and business models will develop, morph and some fail. Forrester comments on the rapidity of technological advance, describing it as an “insect-like life cycle of mobile innovation.”

The report does not address specifics such as radio chips in smartphones but it does proffer a future of a thoroughly integrated, seamless Web-based media world.

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