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About usThe major technologies and trends that are bringing the 'Future of the Internet' to life
Click to jump straight to the relevant section:
- Internet
- Broadband
- Mobile Devices
- Mobile Networking
- Wireless Networking
- Personal Area Networks and Bluetooth
- Web Services
- Convergence
- Power and capability of computing devices
- Connectivity and collaboration
Today we can look back over the last five years and see that the Internet and the Web had an impact on many, many businesses both small and large.
But what of the next five years, or even the next two years? That is where Next Curve can help your business.
We believe that there are a number of significant technologies and trends that every business should know about, in order to understand what impact they will have and how they can improve your business.
Here we briefly describe some of the technologies and technology trends that we believe are making up part of the next curve.
The
Internet
The Internet continues to have a significant impact on business,
it forms the backbone of many important technologies that
we take for granted today, which enables us to advertise our
goods and services on the Web, send and receive email, transact
with business partners and consumers, and even enabling simple
and cheap voice and video conferencing and instant messaging.
In the past people saw the Internet as the replacement for the traditional way of doing things, for example email would replace the letter, physical shops would be replaced with 24 hour virtual shopping.
Thankfully that hasn't happened! We see the Internet offering significant opportunities to augment the way we do business already: our web site sits alongside our more traditional ways marketing to our customers and email is used as well as picking up the phone.
Broadband
Broadband is a term that is used to describe a collection
of technologies that change the way in which people connect
to the Internet. Broadband replaces the dial-up modem method
of connecting to the Internet with a much faster, always-on
connection.
In simple terms, it enables people to be connected to the Internet whenever their computer is switched on, and upload and download content typically ten times faster than a modern modem. Connection charges are replaced with a fixed monthly fee, with a range of service offerings from a number of suppliers charging anything from £12 a month.
There are a variety of broadband technologies, and availability depends on your geographic region. Thankfully the North West is well catered for by a variety of suppliers.
Tip: For businesses that host a web site, take care to ensure that your service provider allows content upload to your site over a broadband connection. Some do not, particularly those offering 'free' services, and require you to call a specific phone number to make content uploads.
Mobile devices
Mobile devices are mobile phones and any computing devices
that is small enough to carry around, including laptops, palm
tops and PDAs (personal digital assistants).
These devices are getting very sophisticated and complex, and there is a trend towards device convergence taking place, mobile phones are offering simple PDA capability and PDAs are now also mobile phones.
The capabilities of mobile devices is improving all the time, many mobile phone owners will be familiar with text messaging, some with WAP which enables users to connect (in a limited way) to the Internet through their mobile phone.
Mobile
Networking technologies
The new technologies that the telecom networks operators are
introducing also changes the nature and use of the mobile
device. New technologies such as GPRS (so-called 2.5 generation
or 2.5G) are being introduced and run over the top of existing
second generation networks such as GSM which enables much
improved data transmission at higher speeds and payment by
data volume rather than call length. These in turn will be
replaced by third generation technologies such as EDGE and
WCDMA technology which will offer very fast data transmission
speeds for the user.
Wireless
Networking technologies
These technologies such as Wi-Fi and 802.11b are different
to mobile technologies which are also wireless in that they
tend to be used in fixed locations. They can be considered
an alternative to running a wired LAN (local area network)
network in a building and offer great flexibility for the
end users. Many types of device can be connected to the wireless
network including desktop computers, laptops and PDAs.
Tips: For a small business considering using a wireless LAN network, bear in mind that the transmission speeds are lower than a wired LAN network at the moment (typically only 1/10th the speed of a 10/100 Mbps wired LAN), so it may be worth installing both a wired network for desktop devices that require fast connections and a wireless network for lap top devices that require convenience and can be used anywhere in the office (or even outside). Also make sure that you are protecting your data, it is easy to set up a wireless network that is not secure. A wireless network may also be very convenient for users who wish to use their laptop to connect to broadband at home but don't to trail wires all around the house.
Personal
Area Networks and Bluetooth
Another form of wireless networking technology is known as
Personal Area Networking, and is enabled by technologies such
as Bluetooth which is becoming commonplace in devices such
as mobile phones, PDAs and laptops. This technology does away
with the wires that in the past were used to connect these
types of device together, so now if a user wants to browse
the Internet through their PDA using their mobile phone to
make a dial-up connection, it is very convenient and means
that the user doesn't even have to remove the phone from the
briefcase.
Web
Services
Web services are a term that describe some of the underlying
infrastructure of the next phase of the Internet. A web service
can be thought of as a web site without a user interface,
and instead of a human using it as they would a web site,
another program somewhere else on the Internet can use it.
This means that a new type of application can be built and
makes use of programs that reside on other machines elsewhere
on the Internet. Microsoft's .NET architecture and technology
set is built using web services.
Convergence
Each of the technologies we describe above are potentially
important in their own right. But when they are used together
their power is enormous.
Convergence happens when device manufacturers build additional capabilities into single devices. For example, the new Ericcson T68i mobile phone can also take digital images and transmit them over the mobile networks, the new Hewlett Packard PDAs have built in mobile phones.
Convergence also happens when disparate technologies are integrated in an innovative way. See the next section for an example of this.
Power
and capability of computing devices
The power and capability of computing devices is massive today,
and at least doubling every 1 year or so. A simple example
of this is the power and performance of the modern hard disk.
Today it is possible to purchase a 120Gb hard disk for around
£150. Two years ago the same amount of money would have purchased
maybe 15Gb. This means that modern computing can suddenly
do so much more for us.
The modern computer is able to store vast amounts of data. Two years ago the trend in music was for new compression techniques such as MP3 that would enable a large amount of music information to be compressed into a small space. The disadvantage was that the compression also reduced the quality of music and made it unsuitable for listening to in a high quality music setting. Today, there is no need to compress the music for storage, that 120Gb hard disk can hold and playback over 400 CDs without any loss of quality (when using a loss less compression technique such as Monkey's Audio).
Now combine this capability with a modern computers ability to play back audiophile quality sound through a digital interface straight into an amplifier, plus its ability to provide visuals that move in time with the music, and you have a very sophisticated and cost effective audio/visual entertainment system that can be used in the home, pubs and clubs, bars, restaurants, mobile discos even as part of an holistic therapy!
Connectivity
and Collaboration
In the knowledge economy the vitality of an organisation can
be determined by how well its people are collaborating to
meet the purpose of the organisation. Having knowledgeable
individuals within the organisation on its own is not good
enough, those knowledgeable individuals need to be collaborating.
Connectivity is about how well connected people are with each other and with their environment. We believe that the success of people is directly related to their connectivity. Technology is a great connectivity tool, and is enabled by the Web, email, mobile phone and instant messaging.