Where Are The Phonebooths? -- Wireless Networking Today
Posted by Dan D'Amore on Tue, Jul 06, 2010
In 1998 there were 2.6 million phone booths. Are there any left in Milwaukee?
Over the course of the last decade, mobile devices have become the most ubiquitous consumer electronic devices ever invented. Even in the poorest of nations, mobile phones have evolved from being a luxury to an indispensible necessity. The trend is (from revenue) going from voice to mobile data services. (Email, pictures, video, VoIP, and social networking interactions.)
The landscape is changing every year. The mobile apps are expected to increase from 7 billion in 2009 to 50 billion by 2012. While Apple’s high profile but tiny market share is impressive its iTunes is what makes analysts drool. Over 150 million billing relationships! Android will easily out sell the iPhone by years end if not already. Working for an engineering based company my “brand A phone” is challenged weekly by my colleague’s new feature on his “brand M phone.”
Should you care? Well…it’s cool if you are 15 years old and your downloading music. But I see the availability of our entire corporate knowledgebase and information available at the touch of a button that makes me giddy. However, this is just the beginning. There is a huge battle going on for the consumers and business mind alike. Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, Amazon and others are amassing tons of information on you and I. Facebook has become one of the most important players gathering more information around the world than anyone else. We use Facebook data on a regular basic at our company when client ask us to get them higher ranking in a Google search.
Where are we going? I see mobile apps dominating the vertical markets. mHealth, mRetail, mCommerce, mEducation, mEnergy. I may never buy another laptop. I believe each of these verticals will drive million of dollars into vendors like Aerohive that provide intelligent wireless access for schools, hospitals businesses, etc.
So because my wife cringes when I say “honey I bought a new phone.” …Maybe I should just tell her I’m going to put a phone on my Christmas list every year.