No, it’s not the gibberish it might initially look like. It’s an observation by Jason Stoddard who, in addition to being a damn fine science fiction writer*, runs a futurist-minded publicity agency called Centric.
Jason had a major squee over the iPhone as a platform back in March, but it would appear Google’s recently unveiled Android mobile OS has impressed him even more:
“Combine two highly capable mobile platforms, each with a sales channel for applications and significant incentives for developers to, well, develop on, and you have the beginnings of the next computing revolution. You can hear Bruce Sterling outline all the devices the mobile phone has already eaten, but the number is only going to increase in coming months.”
I can hear your objection coming, because it’s the same one that leapt to my mind – “yeah, like I’ll be able to afford the data charges to make use of mobile computing“.
So what if – and I’m guessing it’s a big ‘if’, because there’ll be a lot of big companies who’ll object to the idea – there was a free-to-use wireless broadband spectrum?
Changes things a little, doesn’t it? [image by OpenHandsetAlliance]
* We’re unashamedly rather biased about Jason’s ideas and writing, as we’ve published him twice here at Futurismic.
On this side of the pond many carriers are offering reasonably priced unlimited data plans. I wouldn’t be surprised if carriers over your way were to follow suit before too long. Platforms like the iPhone, Android and others yet to be announced are going to look a lot more attractive in that time frame. And WiFi on mobile phones are going to put pressure on carriers to bring data charges down even more. It’s a beautiful mobile world to come.
Hmmm. It may be different over there, but there’s definite contractual/reasonable use quotes round “unlimited” data plans in the UK. Still, we can hope for change … provided the economic slump doesn’t keep prices stable or raising. I just got back from my weekly grocery mission, the price of which has risen about 25% in the last three months. 🙁