A Call To Arms...Join The Mobile Revolution!

The mobile revolution is underway. With it comes an opportunity as large as or larger than the Internet and PC revolution that came before it.

That is the epiphany I got from the 3 months I spent in Europe this past summer and in all the Apple Stores I visited there. Traveling with 45 lb. on my back with 10 of those pounds related to my MacBook and its accessories forced me into a mobile environment for an extended period of time. I don't like notebook computers. They are slow, expensive, break easily, and are far less reliable than desktop computers. I try to use a desktop computer whenever possible, especially when I need to do work. A 5 lb. note book with its needed accessories (i.e. power adapter, etc.) is really a desktop computer you take with you. You still need to pack/unpack it, find power fairly soon, and boot up just like you do with desktop computer. Notebook computers are not mobile devices. Notebook are just desktop computers that you take with you.

What became much more valuable to me was my iPod touch. I was using it constantly and before long, I realized it is not just an MP3 player that can check email and browse the web. There is really a full fledged computer that fits your pocket. There's a 1 GHz processor, 256 MB DRAM, and 8, 32, or 64 GB of flash storage, and an array of sensors in the new iPod Touch that starts at $229. These mobile devices and smart phones have evolved into full fledged computers that fit in your pocket. With the right accessories and software, the average user can do practically everything they would do on a desktop/notebook computer.

But they are not computers. They are small and light enough that they are always with you. They turn on and off instantly, are designed to be fast, and reliable. They have sensors that desktop/laptop computers normally don't have such as GPS, accelerometer, compass, camera, and even a gyroscope. Their size combined with the sensors allow these devices to do all kinds of things a desktop/notebook computer can't do. I can do all kinds of things faster than I can do on a PC. For example, Google Maps is much nicer experience on the iPad/iPhone than it is on the desktop. I can read and delete my emails much faster than on a desktop. Getting to pieces of information is a lot faster such as looking up directions or checking the weather. Since these devices are always with you, it makes them orders of magnitude more useful.

The mobile revolution is the PC revolution of the 80's and 90's all over again. Bill Gates said his goal was to have a PC on every desk. That has already happened. The mobile revolution is about having a mobile device in everyone's pocket and it is just getting started. Think of the possibilities. There is endless opportunities as this market expands just like in the 80's and 90's when desktop computers were taking over the world. Virtually every person in the industrialized world now has or has access to a computer. In the next few years, virtually everyone will also have a mobile device in their pocket, even in third world countries.

The applications for this are endless (just as they were for the PC) and the people with the technical skills to make those ideas happen are in short supply. I made a small fortune in the late 90's doing PC database programming and I believe the same opportunities will play out again in the mobile space.