Next 2011

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Where tomorrow's consumer electronics are going

Darren Murph is the Managing Editor at the gadget and consumer electronics web magazine Engadget. Engadget covers anything in consumer electronics. Darren Murph talks about consumer technology trends.

In the recent years, there has been an explosion in mobile data usage. Voice minutes are getting increasingly worthless. Data on phones makes the social sphere and web more accesible. Just 5 years ago, journalists and bloggers had to write their articles from hardline connections. Now, everybody have access to the internet via their mobile phones or wifi, making information increasingly real-time. If info is not provided in real-time, it is becoming increasing less valuable.

There are also tremendous demands in sophistication, speed, and price. The customers are so picky, thanks to all the technological possibilities. User interfaces are everything: If the user interface is not intuitive to use, users become impatient and move on to the next thing. Great user interfaces are continuing to raise the bars, making companies use tools like eye-tracking to test their designs.

Another rising trend is the highly mobile society: Being connected at all time is a big drain on the network, creating greater demands for fast telecommunications networks like LTE.

Mac OS8 and OS9 used to be totally unintuitve. Now, Apple is setting the standard for both laptops and mobile phones - and to such a degree that Microsoft had to alienate a lot of their customers when they released Windows 7, just to keep up with Apple.

Darren Murph states four different things that will become increasingly important in the future.

1) Non-localised content: Put all content in the cloud. People want handheld devices to be accessible anywhere. SMS and other services tied to a telephone number are becoming obsolete: You don't want to depend on a single phone number, when you can access your email or Skype account everywhere. The mobile phone is becoming the most important computer.

2) Universal syncing across all devices: Apple has been one of the frontrunners in this field with iTunes. iTunes seamlessly sync up between iDevices.

3) Ecosystems are king: Apple paid attention 5 years ago and now has a giant leap. When you're immersed in the Apple-verse, it takes a lot of bad experience with the products to leave it. Apple and Android are the two largest ecosystems now, it will be almost impossible for Windows to break the mobile scene.

4) Adoption starts at mobile: Almost every Apple fanboy starts at iPhone and then go for a Mac, not the other way around. Mobile is going to be the most important market.