On returning from an awesome SAP TechEd in Las Vegas, I was waiting in the departure lounge for my Virgin Atlantic flight and looked through the iTunesU videos I had on my iPad2. There I saw the Apple WWDC2010 Keynote, one that I had personally attended and decided to view it. Within 10 minutes I was amazed.
In the world of mobile we seemed to be fascinated and compelled to look forward, project and speculate but I thought in this blog, I would do quite the opposite. It is only when looking back that we can realise how far we have come and in such a fantastically short time, two years! In fact it seems that the delivery cycles of new devices and OS' is becoming shorter as well as the time Mobile technology advances are in the spotlight, before they become accepted as the norm.
Let us take Apple for example as the leaders of innovation, though other device manufacturers and OS' also show some of the same traits...
iOS SDK was introduced in 2008, which enabled apps to be built for the then revolutionary iPhone. Device OS' are doing things now that would have astounded us and draw us ever deeper into the compelling mobile world. During 2010 was the introduction of the iPad and the iPhone 4 which has become part of out mLifestyle. In the same year iOS4 was introduced which gave multitasking and further features.
The now usual term in the Enterprise, the 'Prosumer', never existed years ago and business' high consumer-driven expectations of the few Enterprise Mobile Apps did not exist also. In the past any UX design was basic and usually drawn from the desktop apps they extended, usually running on Windows. Now the Prosumer expects Amazing, Beautiful and Compelling Mobile Apps.
This year, 2012, gave us the new iPhone5 & iOS6 and some were not impressed or undewhelmed. So are we now complacent and have become desensitised to the hard work that hardware and software engineers are putting into these devices? I do not think so, but on looking around at other passengers in the departure lounge, that were using their Tablets, Smartphones and eReaders, I noticed that nobody was taking any notice! I believe this is a trend that will continue, until there is a massive leap in technology and new devices appear that will require a second glance between users. Then the cycle of mobile tech envy will repeat but for only a split second, as we all now expect innovative mobile devices as part of our day to day existance.
Looking back even only a few years, can now be a very powerful Mobile Reality Check!
I wonder what Tuesday October 23 2012 will bring?
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