In the previous post I talked about some of the significant ways in which mobiles have changed our world. In this post I will talk about a few more areas that will undergo phenomenal changes, thanks to the developments in the mobile technology.
6. Banking and payment
As mentioned earlier, mobiles have changed the way we do banking, and they will change this further.
E-banking is slowly changing to mobile banking. In the not very far future, all one will need to buy a gift for their loved ones, or to book their air tickets is a mobile.
You will say that payment can be done via internet too. Net banking and ‘Paypal’ do this.
No, that is not true. While we can use our credit card or Paypal on the internet, not everybody can. It is not possible to do money transfers 'natively' on the internet. You have to get a separate stand-alone account (like Paypal or a credit card) and only those who have a separate payment system, can do payments on the internet. That is not 'native' to the internet - its just an internet version of using your credit card on a phone call to the merchant, for booking an airline ticket. There are many people who do not use credit cards and Paypal, but there are many who use the mobile phone, right from the chai vala to the CEO of a Company.
On any mobile network if the provider decides to deploy the payment feature, we can make payments on one click - with NO separate payment system. 100% of mobile customers immediately will be able to handle the payment, on one click.
This trend is in the beginning stages. Banking regulations are yet not ready to handle mobile phone accounts, but this will happen.
Take ring tones for example - we can have ringing tones paid for on our mobile account, even if we have no credit card, no paypal, not even a bank account. The payments are taken care of by deducting the money from our 'prepaid' balance on the phone account. As I said the phone will become the wallet.
7. Health care
The health care industry has experienced significant culture changes in the use of mobiles to have effective and reliable communication. The best feature is that a person is reachable even in emergencies.
There have been many applications.
Mobile technologies enable Telecare providers to decentralize and extend their reach to remote settings as well as to individual members with a comparatively smaller investment in technology infrastructure.
A number of applications have been developed specifically for the health care industry using mobile phones such as reminders about appointments and medication, the use of a SIM card to hold medical data, peer support for patients, support for health professionals making a diagnosis, and data collection, contacting emergency services, etc.
Many hospitals in the U.K. like the hospital of Cleveland, have adopted the iPhone since it provides efficient ways for the staff to keep in touch, to monitor patients, to access the hospital database, etc.
Future applications may involve a plethora of mobile services like a patient in a remote area being sent a prescription via a mobile, or doctors having a video chat via mobiles to discuss the best possible way to treat a patient, pathological labs sending reports to patients via mobile phones, patients sending vital information like blood pressure and glucose level to their doctors via devices which are enabled to send messages to the patient’s doctor, etc.
Industry visionaries, like mobile industry expert, Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University in the US, predicts, “the cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development.”
8. Advanced imaging
Every new camera phone released is marketed as a replacement for cameras, that too a compact replacement. Smart phones (like Nokia’s N8, N86, C7, LG’s KC 910, Sony Ericisson’s Walkman W995 already come with a 8/ 8.1 MP camera, and Samsung’s M8910 Pixon which has a 12 MP camera – hold your breath – Carl Zeiss optics with an optical 3x zoom!!!) have already begun a trend to take over the traditional digital cameras. And these are just a few of them I mentioned above.
As good as these features are, they aren't good enough to usurp a compact DV or still camera and the future will see a coming together of big names in the photography and mobile world as industry leaders in both fields realize that people don't want to carry a camera and a mobile device.
So expect to see 12+ megapixels and 1080P capture, huge on-board storage and even full editing on the hoof with Photoshop and Premier among the software being used.
Mobiles are set to change the photography industry.
9. Augmented reality
Augmented reality is the future. What with the coming up of technologies like the Sixth sense, Google's 'Goggles', 'Wikitude' and 'Last Minute’s Nru', among others. But the AR technology has only just arrived into the marketplace.
We can look forward to true location awareness, enabling clients to view their couriers’ progress in real-time, emergency services - showing the location of victims of crime or accident by their cellular signal and many other greatly useful applications to make our professional as well as personal lives more efficient and safer.
Aside from advancement in AR apps, we can also expect a range of devices offering AR replacements for traditional methods of human input, ranging from virtualized keyboards and touchpads to eye-dialing your phone via a heads-up display while driving.
AR may also be expected to fill the void between 2D projection and holographic projections, allowing users to conferencing, sharing information and tools and interacting via virtual controls and workspaces.
Imagine pointing your camera phone at a giant 2D barcode on the ground and then what you see is a 3D rendering of a car!!! That’s the application of AR.
And that is exactly what Ford did with the launch of their new version of the KA. 2D barcodes were seen on streets of several large European cities. People could walk round the car and see it from all sides, yet it was virtual. There’s a high potential for the marketing giants in here.
The application of AR technology will go beyond smartphones though. One can also expect to see augmented advertising hoardings and other interactive media in the future.
10. Mobile cloud
Let’s get to the hot topic of these days… the CLOUD. Along with the power and flexibility being populated in the small devices, we can expect to see a leap to cloud computing in the mobile market.
With smaller, more powerful devices having the lion's share of their hard work done remotely, we can expect to have all the power that we need. Also, the de-centralized storage of documents, photographs and other data would enable users to work seamlessly with colleagues and even share devices without loss of data. In addition, the data would be secure ad available on-the-go to the users.
Work in this field has already started with projects synchronizing a mobile’s contacts and media with an online repository dedicated to the user, a good example of which is Google Sync which synchronizes the calendar, contacts and gmail account from the user’s mobile.
One can expect the mobile cloud to also see the distillation of mobile operating systems, leaving users with a quicker, more efficient experience when working on their devices.
The mobile cloud is already in use in certain applications such as Google's Gmail and Apple's MobileMe, but with more extensive usage the network infrastructure would have to be fast and stable enough to support the high amount of data transfer needed to make such a concept viable. The arrival of 4G is imminent, and with that we can expect a whole new array of higher specced hardware and a more robust network infrastructure.These are just a few areas that the mobiles are going to affect. The possibilities are just what you can imagine.
