Droid-Cloud: Welcome to the future

By Keith Darnay

I have seen the digital future and it is a Droid in a Cloud.

First, a few statistical snippets:

* It's projected that, within five years, more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs.

* At least 69 percent of online users are already (and probably unknowingly) using some form of cloud computing.

SmartPhones -- specifically the Google Android and the Apple iPhone -- are taking the mobile market by storm, literally changing overnight the way people are using cell phones in their lives and work.

This isn't hyperbole. Mobile technology is being adopted by the general public faster than Internet technology was adopted -- and that itself was a fast process.

I'll use my coworker, Mike, as an example of the rush to mobile technology. Up until about two weeks ago, Mike had a standard cell phone and an iPod Touch.

With the cell phone, he did the standard cell phone stuff: Text messaging, quick photo sharing and such. Using a small external device, he could turn his cell phone into a wireless router and plug into his laptop computer to go online anywhere.

With the Touch, he could also wirelessly access the Internet, his satellite radio account, listen to music stored on the phone, access photos and videos, use GPS technology and engage in dozens of other activities and uses through various apps.

Then he got an Android.

The Android does everything his old cell phone and iPod Touch did -- and more.

It does more things so easily, so powerfully, so adaptably that, in less than two weeks, Mike's iPod Touch has gone from a primary, daily use device to a glorified satellite music receiver.

The Android has consolidated and supplanted his previous tech devices.

And this is the future trend I'm seeing.

The Android is the first step in the development of a general use, multimedia mobile device (MMD) that we will all be using as our primary gateway to digital content and communications.

There will no longer be such a thing as a "cell phone." Instead, we'll have a device that does a million things, one of which happens to be voice transmission over a wireless network.

The MMD will be a perfect "cloud computing" companion. Cloud computing, simply, is storing and accessing your digital content from a server on the Internet instead of from your personal or work computer.

If you have a Hotmail, GMail or Yahoo e-mail account; if you use Google Docs; if you store online and share photos, videos and computer files, you're already using cloud computing.

A number of surveys in recent years indicate many businesses are interested in using cloud computing as a way to store, share and work on business projects. The key is ensuring that information is rigorously secure, readily accessible and recoverable at any time.

You'll be able to plug your MMD into any computer monitor and turn the MMD and monitor into an instant desktop computer, from which everything you need to access will be available through your cloud account.

Because all your data is in the cloud, you don't have to worry if you lose your MMD or it's stolen or broken or the technology fueling the MMD changes. Nothing is stored on the unit. Just replace the device and re-access your digital life once more.

Your office can be anywhere at any time. Your personal digital life can be accessed and shared anywhere at any time.

Want to watch a movie? Stream it through your MMD. Music? Access literally any song ever recorded in any genre through your MMD.

No USBs, CDs, DVDs or external drives to cart around.

Just your MMD.

The digital world simplified.

The real world made easier in which to live and play.

All from a device in the palm of your hand.

Welcome to the future.

Mobile Internet Report (Dec. 2009)
http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/

Mary Meeker Internet Trends
http://bbh-labs.com/internet-trends-2010-by-morgan-stanleys-mary-meeker

Cloud Computing Trends
http://www.focus.com/articles/hosting-bandwidth/top-10-cloud-computing-trends/

Cloud Computing Statistics
http://computinginthecloud.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/some-interesting-cloud-compting-statistics/

(Keith Darnay has worked in the online world for more than a decade, the traditional media world for a few decades more and manages the online department and Web site for the University of Mary. His own site, featuring this column going back to 1995, is at www.darnay.com.)