The Coming Explosion in Mobile Internet

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4 Billion Mobile devices with over 700 Million of those accessing the Internet is a testament to where we are now in the trend toward increasing mobility. The implications are fascinating. The non-profit mobile think tank, MOCOM2020, has shared some compelling research as to where this is all heading and its coming sooner than you might think.

Several new network technologies for mobile and non mobile Internet access are in place or being launched very soon. 4G continues to be rolled out while Verizon is planning to test its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Boston and Seattle later this year as a dry run for its big commercial launch in 2010 - see Five reasons it's time for a Verizon iPhone. MOCOM2020's interesting presentation below highlights the implications for these high speed networks.

Verizon COO Denny Strigl recently mentioned the company planned to commercially launch LTE services in "up to 30 markets" next year to service 100 million people. The Boston Globe reported that Verizon isn't willing to elaborate on its LTE plans further and it hasn't yet released pricing the service.

Verizon first announced it was trialing LTE in two U.S. cities last February. At the time Verizon did not know what download and upload speeds its networks would offer. In Verizon's own trials with its partners at Vodafone, its LTE network reached peak speeds of 60Mbps. See the video demo of LTE below. High speed mobile access to the Internet is about to revolutionize the way we do many things. Expect it to reach mainstream use in less than 3 years.

Is Caffeine Google's Answer ?

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The challenge with being “best at” and “BIG” is how tough it is to stay ahead of the competition. Even for a firm like Google. What made you innovative in the past can become less valuable and what a maturing changing market perceives about your product can become more important. Holding onto market share isn’t the same game as creating innovative solutions that create new markets. Google is starting to consider the implications surrounding this reality.

Google's most recent secret project Caffeine was announced yesterday but users will not notice any differences between the old technology and the new; at least not for a while. The purported goal of Caffeine is to index content faster. Google claims it is trying to figure out real-time relevant search, but that’s not the entire story.

So what is the new Caffeine project all about ? User perception or in other words “Marketing”. Microsoft’s “Bing” touted its search engine enhancements, focused on a few key channels, had positive reviews and partnered with Yahoo. If Microsoft had not created a new “Bing” brand no one would have noticed the change. Remember General Motors’ Saturn ?

Remember Wolfram Alpha, which was going to change the search world and catch Google ? Wolfram Alpha says it provides users “intelligence” and Bing claims the same thing. They saw Google’s weakness and attacked it.

What this proves is that for big companies like Google, you just can’t innovate under the radar anymore. Its becoming more about the market and the user and this is where perception becomes more important than the technology, hence Caffeine.

See Google’s new Caffeine product at http://www2.sandbox.google.com. Watch Jim Boot's excellent description of the new product on the video below.

Eric Schmidt On Transparency & Open Immigration

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Google's head, Eric Schmidt, recently shared his views on a series of topics at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He addressed how "old" institutions are inefficient and in particular governments. His solution is transparency because as he puts it, "many bureaucrats know what they are doing is not effective". Schmidt goes on to question why the US attracts foreign students and then kicks them out, a significant impediment to retaining the brightest minds from around the world. Finally, Eric touts the excitement that instant translations tools and photo identification being created by Google will offer. Check out this brief 6 minute interview to learn more.

Apple Tablet & Mobile Computing

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Anticipation around Apple's upcoming tablet product is heating up. The creation of netbooks and powerful mobile devices are eroding margins in PC's and Apple is trying to figure out what white space it can attack to maintain its high end margin. The reason being that mobility, as video, is THE growth market for computing devices. See the review of the market and Apple's tablet from Scot Moritz below.