14 DAY TRIAL // Gartner, Inc. has recently announced that there are eight mobile technologies expected to greatly evolve throughout 2009 and 2010, with significant impact on short-term mobile strategies and politics.
“All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it’s important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy,” said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies.”
The technologies Gartner pointed towards include Bluetooth 3.0, which is expected to have its specification released during this year, while devices to support it should arrive in 2010. The technology should sport features like ultra-low-power mode, and allow for new devices and new applications to be developed. Bluetooth 3.0 will come with support for three bearers, including “classic” Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ultrawideband (UWB), while more bearers are expected to see support in the future.
The Mobile User Interfaces are also expected to represent a competitive segment of the market in 2009 and 2010, mainly due to their great impact on a device's usability and supportability. It seems that there will be new and diversified UIs developed in the future, with support for more business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. The Interfaces will allow owners of small devices to gain more accessibility to the Web.
Another important technology that will continue to evolve in 2009 and 2010 is Location Sensing. More and more consumers use the location services provided by their operators, and location sensing is expected to leverage systems and mobile social networking.
802.11n standard that offers high data transfer speeds for Wi-Fi connections is able to deliver better coverage than other technologies in many situations. The technology offers transfer rates comparable with those delivered by wired connections, and we might see entirely wireless offices in the near future.
Technology advancements are also expected to be made in the display area of the industry. In 2009 and 2010, technologies like active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors should emerge. Projectors are bound to allow for instant presentations to be projected on a desktop, while battery life improvements should also appear.
Simple mobile applications are provided to users via mobile Web, yet it seems that a number of limitations will have to be addressed during this year. Mobile Web applications are expected to become a part of most business-to-consumer strategies adopted in the future. On-campus enterprise solutions, however, should use thin-client applications.
The cellular broadband should see even greater spreading than it did during last year. The latest standards, like high-speed packet access (HSPA), can offer impressive download and upload speeds, and HSPA could even replace Wi-Fi “hotspots.” Organizations will even be able to acquire mobile computers that include cellular modules, which would deliver more performance than add-on cards or dongles.
Near Field Communication (NFC) can offer handsets simple ways of communicating on very small distances, like one or two centimeters. NFC could be used in applications like mobile payment or “touch to exchange information.” Such activities might not become popular during the following two years, yet NFC might see some traction in emerging markets.