In the history of the
world of business, very few industries have enjoyed the stellar growth that we
have seen in electronic media and entertainment over the past few decades.
This spectacular growth has included electronic
games, mobile apps and social media, but the meteoric growth in these three
fields has been possible only because of underlying technology trends.
There is every reason
for continued optimism regarding future growth of games, apps and social media
due to three basic factors: 1) booming
growth in the number of people around the world who use the internet on a
regular basis, whether by fixed means, wireless devices or both; 2) continuing
improvements in the speed and reliability of internet access; and 3) the
continuing and dramatic evolution of electronic platforms, particularly
smartphones and tablet computers.
Game
consoles also continue to improve on a steady basis.
Eventually, virtual reality may take games
and entertainment to an entirely new level.
Embedded, wearable
and ubiquitous computing will be the next underlying technology advance that
will further drive apps and social media, and to a lesser extent electronic
games.
Specifically, personal
electronics have been evolving in the following order:
1)
First, there was sometimes-on
(think dial-up and internet service providers like the original AOL.com).
2)
Then we progressed to always-on,
thanks to the rapid adoption of fixed broadband, whether via DSL
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In the history of the
world of business, very few industries have enjoyed the stellar growth that we
have seen in electronic media and entertainment over the past few decades. This spectacular growth has included electronic
games, mobile apps and social media, but the meteoric growth in these three
fields has been possible only because of underlying technology trends.
There is every reason
for continued optimism regarding future growth of games, apps and social media
due to three basic factors: 1) booming
growth in the number of people around the world who use the internet on a
regular basis, whether by fixed means, wireless devices or both; 2) continuing
improvements in the speed and reliability of internet access; and 3) the
continuing and dramatic evolution of electronic platforms, particularly
smartphones and tablet computers. Game
consoles also continue to improve on a steady basis. Eventually, virtual reality may take games
and entertainment to an entirely new level.
Embedded, wearable
and ubiquitous computing will be the next underlying technology advance that
will further drive apps and social media, and to a lesser extent electronic
games. Specifically, personal
electronics have been evolving in the following order:
1)
First, there was sometimes-on
(think dial-up and internet service providers like the original AOL.com).
2)
Then we progressed to always-on,
thanks to the rapid adoption of fixed broadband, whether via DSL or cable,
along with ever higher internet access speeds.
3)
More recently, we evolved to
always-with-you, thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices, particularly
smartphones.
4)
The coming leap forward in
computing will be always-around-you, where, to a rapidly growing degree, the
advent of pervasive computing devices and remote wireless sensors will connect
us to, and collect data from, an astonishing array of objects, ranging from
automobiles to appliances and air conditioning systems, to monitors that record
our individual health statistics. The
Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G wireless networks will be big enablers of this
trend.
5)
The future will include wearable
computing devices and embedded computing that enables rooms to recognize you
when you enter and automatically configure nearby devices to your personal
preferences.
6)
The future will also include
devices that know which types of entertainment, games or social media we
habitually use at certain times of day, and therefore push those services to
you seamlessly and automatically.
Amazon’s Echo and similar personal digital assistants are the recent
embodiment of this trend.
Globally, as of 2019,
there were approximately 8.2 billion wireless device subscriptions in a world
of 7.7 billion people, along with 4.4 billion people worldwide who were internet
users. (Some users have more than one wireless service subscription.) The base of people around the world who adopt
smartphones will continue to grow, and they will use them to access the internet,
games and mobile apps in massive numbers.
Three extremely
important sectors of this evolving personal communications and media world
include electronic games, apps and social media (GASM), and the lines between
these three sectors frequently blur. For
example, multiplayer online games encourage communication between communities
of players, while social media like Facebook are often the platforms that
support the most popular games.
Meanwhile, apps are rapidly becoming the tool of choice for launching a
wide variety of communications tools, entertainment and internet sites,
including games. Users seamlessly let
their online access flow from one segment of GASM to the other, and often use
all three at once.
The security of user data
and customer privacy remain significant concerns in the GASM business,
particularly after Sony suffered a major hacking of millions of its Sony Online
Entertainment network accounts in early 2011.
Elsewhere, customer privacy issues have been major points of concern at
Facebook and other social media services.
Customers want to play games online and they want to interact on social
networks, but they also want to control and protect their own personal data,
and they certainly want to feel their credit card information is secure
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