Where its all going… and why Google has the head start.

Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in a year, but soon. There will be a complete paradigm shift. Its going to change everything, and some people will get it, and some wont, but it will happen. Mark my words, it will happen. (Not the image of the guy with his thumb in his ear, that is just stupid) Just hear me out.

There are armies of engineers, developers, and marketers right now figuring out how to make this work, how its going to work, the amounts of processing power and form factors. Some are already laying out the road right in front of your face, right here, right now. Using the entire populous as a beta network. The entire concept lies with us, with everyday users, and everyday devices. Its happening right now, and yes even to you, even right now. They are just not showing you the big picture yet. Don't worry, I'll give you a peak into the master plan... Click for More

I'm assuming its an arms race between Google, Microsoft, and Apple. At least I hope; or myself and the reader are the only ones in the world who get it at the moment, which I doubt. Well, maybe you are still confused so let me fill you in.

Take out your cell phone for a second and look at it. If you are like about 90% of all the zombies walking around staring at their little black bricks, everything you do is connected to this device. You have music, your favorite web pages, little games, maybe chat software to check in with your friends or misses. Face it, its a lifeline.

Then you get to your office and what happened? Most cases, the phone goes into your pocket or maybe a little charger dock and you log into a PC/Laptop etc. Sort of same scenario when you go home, you grab your favorite lappy and snuggle it up on the couch for a night of popular reality show from your satellite or cable box. You have all your stuff there, but you have to sync it, and seriously thats a pain in the ass. Its a major disconnect.

So what is my point? The point is that our desire for connectivity and portability has outgrown the pace of technology for once. So instead we've settled on a very segmented information model. I would predict, at least by the year 2015 you'll start seeing a very dramatic merger of these two paradigms (which has already begun now). The divisional lines of "This is my computer, this is my MP3 player, this is my phone, this is my satellite receiver, I have my information in 8 different places, and have a network SAN at home, have my pictures on that Apple thing" etc.

Lets consider the following alteration of the previous scenario. You wake up in the morning grab your alarm clock, which sits in a little media station, aka your cell phone. Check your emails as you get ready for work. Get into your car, and your phone now becomes your navigation and media device to play all your music, podcasts, news casts, etc (We're not too far off here so far right?). Get to work, and sit down at your desk, and here's where it all changes. You pull your cell phone (aka computer) from your pocket and plug it into a docking station. You are connected to your mouse, your monitors, keyboard and the device is now your computer.

There is no laptop, there is no desktop, and this is the paradigm that will have to shift. Both mentally and technologically. The technology is just not here yet, (Well, to that extent) but it will be, and soon. The same kind of thing in the home will occur. No longer will you have a common laptop, or network storage, you'll just have dummy terminals connected to your TV, all your media will come from your data stores on the cloud, your new media will come from entirely online sources, and not only accessible at home, but anywhere in the world you are.

Everything you own digitally will ether be on the device locally or most likely in the cloud managed by (most likely Google, Microsoft, or Apple). Pick your poison. These devices will mostly be portals to cache data to and from the cloud. For the most part they will be disposable. Not to say cheap, but if your device is lost or stolen, you just get a new one and everything you already had owned or done, settings, programs will all be right there waiting for you in the cloud after a simple login. All that you have digitally will be synced wirelessly through various stores, be it your personal store, family store, or work store. The "Device" is merely your portal into this information.

This isn't really a new thought for me. I've sort of had this vision for a while, and patiently swim though the mediocre devices that tease me without actually doing what I know they once will. I guess I never really realized some of the finer details of "how" and the "who" of this until lately by spending some time with Googles latest beta project, the Droid. This has given me a few views into the mind of Google, and how Google will one day own the world. I don't even think the companies Google is in bed with even have a clue of what they have in store, but you know they are scared shitless and I know Apple for a fact wished that one night stand had never happened.

Two words, Google Voice.

Google voice is Google's pet project, that at the moment is an "invite only" service, and in my opinion the biggest Trojan horse to hit the Google Marketplace, and fly right though Verizon's radar. Not only does it allow you to make and receive phone calls on your phone using a Google phone number, but using your existing phone number. With Google purchasing Gizmo5 this week, you can assume VOIP/SIP isn't far behind. Think about that for a minute. All of a sudden that $70 calling plan makes a lot less sense and that $49 unlimited data plan starts making a lot more.

The future holds a different world for the wireless phone companies. Their model will shift from being your phone service provider, to being your data service provider, and the cloud provider (aka Google, Microsoft, and Apple) will own your information and voice routing. I think the phone number concept is to ingrained and will forever exist... But how it exist will fundamentally change. So maybe your data plan gets cheaper, but now you have a new residual payment for the cloud that manages all your data.

"Ahhhhh" you're thinking. Are you starting to get it? The concept of personal computers will become an outdated cliché. Not that computers will really go away, just how we use them and interface our data will change. Think of them as "Smart Terminals", portals if you will to access and manipulate our information. Sure they will run an essential operating system, and most likely have some form of local storage, but the vast majority of everything you interface with on a daily basis will be cached in the cloud.

There is a wave coming, but that is an entirely different post. So wax up your imagination; Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.

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