Forecasting 2011 Happenings In Mobile and Personal Technology

The hoped-for crystal ball app never arrived in this holiday season’s apps, so I’ll take my own swing at forecasting what will happen in mobile and personal technology during 2011. While brands concentrate more efforts on reaching consumers via mobile, many will fail at Moments of Trust by ignoring input and insights that spread quickly via social networks and texting. Security on a smartphone will be compromised, but consumers will ignore calls to buy virus/malware protection.Domestic in-flight Wi-Fi will become commonplace but adoption will be limited by pricing, especially on longer flights with higher fees. Facebook will continue to be questioned about it privacy policy while naïve members sign in on public computers without due care. Smartphone use will pass 50% sooner than analysts predicted, boosted by the deals for free devices with contracts. We'll see even more stories about the mobile device becoming our wallet, but the great majority of Americans will view the idea with skepticism. Already in drugstores, personal technology will be more prevalent in convenience stores. Slurpee and tablet anyone? Some jerk will claim his mobile phone exploded and caused injury. Media will run with the story. Sound familiar? Has happened just about every year in the last five. Mobile subscribers will dislike the carriers even more as tiered data plans become the norm and overages result in crazy charges. Personal hotspot devices will become more popular but data usage and associated charges will become more of an issue. Carriers will continue to say their 4G is faster than others’ with lawyers ultimately challenging the claims. Disney won’t be the only company closing in on 50 percent of engagements via mobile by 2012. Given the breathtaking speed of innovation in mobile and personal technology, I will have missed forecasting major news coming next year. Article first published as Forecasting 2011 Happenings In Mobile and Personal Technology on Technorati.