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Brian · 10-25-2005, 09:38 PM

According to an article at Wired.com titled Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends, future mobile devices will have better usability, improved natural speech recognition, and more social networking capabilities. In the article, a futurist discusses how more and more features have been added to our mobile devices at the expense of simplicity and usability. Future devices will be designed with more emphasis on ease of use while limiting features to those that are the most commonly used. Simply put, usability will make a comeback.

The problem, says Ian Pearson, futurist in residence at British Telecommunications, is that most people buy a device for a particular purpose. They neither want nor care about all the extra capabilities.

"We've done 20 years of adding functionality, and 99 percent of that functionality isn't needed," Pearson said. "There will be an enormous market over the next several years for really simple stuff."

More mobile applications that help us communicate and keep in touch with our friends, family members, and co-workers are coming, according to the article. Two current mobile social software applications (MoSoSos), Dodgeball (which was recently acquired by Google) and Playtxt, as well as mobile location-based services and mapping applications like Earthcomber and KMaps are examples of what's to come.

Futurists also predict that more mobile services will take advantage of improved natural speech recognition in the future.

Speech-recognition technology will be instrumental in enabling new mobile services, said Ronald Gruia, author of the blog Technology Futurist and emerging communications program leader at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. In recent years, speech software developers, in particular Nuance Communications, which until recently went by the name ScanSoft (SSFT), have gotten much better at what they do. Gruia believes it's only a matter of time before speech-enabled mobile apps for tasks like composing e-mail while driving can be commonplace.

Read the full article here.

Related: Editorial: Where are the intelligent handhelds?

10-25-2005, 09:38 PM	#1
Brian MobileRead Editor Posts: 447 Karma: 84 Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Massachusetts Device: Treo 700p, Zodiac2	Futurist make tech predictions According to an article at Wired.com titled Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends, future mobile devices will have better usability, improved natural speech recognition, and more social networking capabilities. In the article, a futurist discusses how more and more features have been added to our mobile devices at the expense of simplicity and usability. Future devices will be designed with more emphasis on ease of use while limiting features to those that are the most commonly used. Simply put, usability will make a comeback. The problem, says Ian Pearson, futurist in residence at British Telecommunications, is that most people buy a device for a particular purpose. They neither want nor care about all the extra capabilities. "We've done 20 years of adding functionality, and 99 percent of that functionality isn't needed," Pearson said. "There will be an enormous market over the next several years for really simple stuff." More mobile applications that help us communicate and keep in touch with our friends, family members, and co-workers are coming, according to the article. Two current mobile social software applications (MoSoSos), Dodgeball (which was recently acquired by Google) and Playtxt, as well as mobile location-based services and mapping applications like Earthcomber and KMaps are examples of what's to come. Futurists also predict that more mobile services will take advantage of improved natural speech recognition in the future. Speech-recognition technology will be instrumental in enabling new mobile services, said Ronald Gruia, author of the blog Technology Futurist and emerging communications program leader at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. In recent years, speech software developers, in particular Nuance Communications, which until recently went by the name ScanSoft (SSFT), have gotten much better at what they do. Gruia believes it's only a matter of time before speech-enabled mobile apps for tasks like composing e-mail while driving can be commonplace. Read the full article here. Related: Editorial: Where are the intelligent handhelds?