Rise of the mobile ecosystem

If the 2010s was the decade of the smartphone, then the 2020s will be the one where mobile apps will be taken to the next level. The mobile is already an extension of your personality and that will only be cemented in the post-Covid world.

In the 1980s, the desktop exceeded mainframe sales and later the laptop co-existed with the desktop. However if there’s one device that could theoretically put every other device out of business, then it’s the smartphone. As long as you have all the apps, all the bandwidth and the cloud, then you don’t really need anything else.

The mobile can really be the one device that can replace all other devices. Imagine a world with just screens, input devices and your personal smartphone which had all the power you need and you could take it where you want and use that power wherever. However, we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis and subsequent lockdown has already changed our way of life and the way we use technology. Certain long-trend terms of the pre-Covid world are getting cemented and new ones are being created.

Mobile workforce will increase: Sometime back the mobile workforce crossed 1 billion and with the way it’s going, 2 billion could come sooner than you think thanks to the recent tech acceleration. More and more tasks can be done on the mobile and it is being made secure from the company point of view. While it started with official mail and then became indispensable for agents and courier-delivery boys, that’s just the beginning and soon almost every profession will be able to complete many of their tasks on the mobile. A point to be noted is that while the desktop and laptop did not really reach the lower classes or rural masses, the smartphone did. Rural India is the next big growth story.

Mobile apps will mushroom: The Corona crisis is a strange thing. While some industries are in recession, others are seeing a boom. One such is the mobile app industry which is seeing more downloads and more app makers are scrambling to meet the need of the all those jumping on the bandwagon. If anything can be done on the desktop or laptop, it will be done on the smartphone. That includes both work apps and those for leisure like gaming. Artificial Intelligence is also being leveraged big time in the apps that are on their way.

Contact tracing gets a foot in the door: Everyone knew that the mobile devices could be used to track people and governments were trying to leverage that to their advantage but there were too many privacy concerns. However it takes just a good crisis to get that foot in the door. Contact tracing is the latest and now private citizens will finally be tracked. Israel mastered this and used mobile GPS information of critical patients to find out where they were and send alerts to those mobiles that were in proximity. Even in India we have the Aarogya Setu App. Expect this to be used for more things in the future. Your mobile is now your I-card.

Collaboration will be popular on mobile too: Zoom was launched in 2011 and only in 2020 it became such a rage. Soon other collaboration platforms followed. People realize that a lot of international, domestic and local travel is not necessary. Videoconferencing and secure and seamless file sharing tools can solve a lot of problems. And what can be done on the desktop/laptop can eventually be done on the mobile. It’s no wonder that WhatsApp upped the video call capacity from 4 to 8, cosy for most internal meetings.

Digital wallet and cryptocurrency: In a no touch world people are scared to exchange notes and coins. That can’t happen with digital money. That got a fillip in India after the demonetization of 2016 and globally will get now. In the long run people may also explore cryptocurrencies. Digital cash can empower the lower classes that may not have access to other channels but have mobiles.

5G/successor technology will be the kill shot: 1G was calls. 2G was also SMSes. 3G was Internet. 4G supersized it all and we got the consumer Internet revolution. 5G will not be limited to mobiles. It will power smart homes, smart cars, smart factories and eventually smart cities: One upper estimate puts the number of IoT (Internet of Things) devices at 500 billion by 2030. That ecosystem will be ruled by the mobile and we can only imagine what all that will encompass. The Age of the Mobile has already begun.