It occurs to me that technological advances must be understood and appreciated not only for their self-contained breakthroughs, but also for how they impact-indeed, transform-other more established technologies.
Sometimes transformation comes fast; sometimes there’s a delayed response. Put another way, the overused term “convergence” grossly oversimplifies the disruptive dynamics that are in play these days.
Start with recent announcements by radio giants Clear Channel Communications Inc. and Infinity Broadcasting Corp. (to a different degree, MSpot) to bring tunes to mobile phones. Of course, the radio business was already in the throes of transformation thanks to XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Meantime, the Internet and high-capacity digital storage have revolutionized the music industry in ways good and mischievous.
Photography was a relatively straightforward business for decades. Buy film, load it in the camera, aim and shoot. Digital imaging blew up that convention. Now, with digital cameras integrated into cell phones, photography has been drawn into another new realm with all its unintended consequences.
Next, TV and video programming. First, over-the-air broadcasting, then cable and later satellite. Progress, but mostly in a fixed sense. Now, something exceptional is happening. Video content is going mobile just as gaming, gambling, commerce, pornography and many other enterprises have that once operated exclusively in a stand-still world.
It’s true, increased computing power, the miniaturization of electronic components and the advent of the Internet have been powerful forces behind much of this technological cross pollination. At the same time, one might argue those forces merely set the foundation for something fundamentally revolutionary in scope and scale.
What happens when the functions and expressions of business, government, education, health care, the arts and human interaction become personal and portable? You’re seeing it, little by little, day by day. The way people do things is changing. It turns out the Next Big Thing is not really any one thing at all, but rather the ever-changing, ever-morphing composite of technological change in industry and society.
All this is at once spectacular and totally logical-indeed, predictable. Why wouldn’t citizens want the flexibility to take work and play with them.
The mobile phone is The Great Vehicle of our day. As one industry exec reiterated last week, discreet products and services are becoming features and applications of mobile phones already appended to so many folks out there.
