Mobile is not new. It’s as ancient as our earliest ancestors.

Humans are social and mobile creatures. We are social because we have content to share and we possess a deep need to be valued for that content. We are mobile because we have the need to connect with others whom we approach via sounds, gestures, and symbols (writing).

All technologies of value intrinsically affect our ability to connect and communicate (wheel, chisel & stone, telegraph, airplane, etc). Technology trends always move in one or both of these directions: mobile + social. The more a new technology leverages both of these elemental human needs, the greater its potential for success.

Example…

• Early humans were hunter-gatherers. They nomadically followed the resources.
• As families/tribes grew in size, economies could be specialized with some developing tools and weapons while others travelled and hunted.
• Such developments were augmented by the domestication of crops and animals allowing groups to build stationary communities.
• Sedentary living resulted which fed human social needs.

               Yet humans are social and mobile creatures who wanted to share content via trade.

Therefore, to meet human mobile needs, trade routes developed to “share” resources (content). Consequentially, platforms for enhancing mobility were developed (animals as burden bearers, carts, boats, autos, locomotives, etc.). Interestingly, an unintended consequence of trade routes was securitydevelopments. Kung Fu was the result of Monks – hired for their dependability – developing systems to protect themselves from wild animals and robbers while transporting goods - content - along trade routes.

Economies continued to expand and specialize with some focusing on platform development and provision (Wagon trains) while others focused on content provision. And of course security is still an issue regardless of the supply chain we address.

Not much has changed in the past several millennia. Today’s trade routes are electronic networks. We mobilize for connection online. We share content using dependable platforms. And we seek to improve our safety with self-defensive techniques using passwords and the firewalls, etc.

Mobile is a connection platform for sharing content (mobile + social). And we want our content to get delivered securely (avoid Pirates!).

Our content doesn’t change just because the platform changes. However, our packaging of that content may need to change just as Trains and Cargo ships can carry larger bundles of content than the 8 bit packets of data carried along the information super highway.

Fact: Humans will be increasingly connected and sharing via mobile. Our need is to package content (solutions/training) for this new platform.

Do we partner with an existing platform provider or reinvent a better mousetrap? Do we reinvent as a security measure or to improve quality of the platform? What are we most capable at providing in these two spaces: content vs. platform?

Challenge…

The speed of emerging developments is increasing exponentially. The way large companies approached these questions in the past may be too slow for next generation iterations.

• Telephone took 70 years to be adopted globally.
• Internet took 40 years to be adopted globally.
• Cell phones took only 10 years for global adoption.
• Tablets will be adopted globally in 24 months.

Such speed of adoption among emerging technologies affords competitors to disrupt existing market strongholds seemingly overnight!

How much time do we have and what will we do with it?