Technology is shaping the landscape so rapidly these days that it’s absolutely critical for entrepreneurs, executives, small business owners or anyone involved in online financial transactions to understand where the world is headed. It’s not enough to know the buzz words, you need to understand the concepts and be able to implement them in your business model. For example, mobile device sales have officially risen above desktop and laptop sales and many businesses are confused as to what this means. A safe bet is to assume that this trend will continue and that mobile devices will be the preferred vehicle for online activity in the coming decade.
It used to be that someone only used their cell phone to look something up if they were out of the house. It was considered a luxury and a last resort. These days people are using their mobile devices for Internet browsing even when they’re at home, their desktops only a few steps away. More people are using mobile devices to stream video content as well. In fact, over 2/3rds of Internet activity is estimated to be for video streaming, so the fact that people would rather watch a video on their phone than on a bigger screen is a pretty big deal. More people are using mobile devices to shop and read too. Smartphones and notepads are becoming the medium of choice for people who want to read e-books and people looking to shop online. Users are using mobile devices for more applications and activities and for this reason mobility is a major new factor in the business world.
Other major trends include cloud computing, Web 3.0, social networking, sustainability, and virtual IT. Web 3.0 will include facets of all the others, as the next iteration of Internet will be heavily reliant on location-based networking that will utilize clouds for file-sharing and virtualized servers. The trend towards Web 3.0 is a concept that is not very well understood right now in most business communities even though it will be ubiquitous in less than a decade. Mobile devices will go hand in hand with this revolution and eventually it will be incomprehensible to be offline. Businesses will be in a constant state of online, distributed networking.
Trends in business are being heavily influenced by technological advancement and the savvy entrepreneur or small business owner would be wise to understand them. Adopting a mobile device-friendly business platform and getting out in front of the Web 3.0 apps are excellent ways to start.
