Getting Excited About Computing

It seems like we all know where computing is going.

Tablets, ultra-portable laptops, NFC, smart phones, the Internet of Things…

We know it’s coming. It’s just a matter of when it’ll be ready for consumers.

We also know the interfaces are getting more intuitive and simpler for the average consumer to use on a day to day basis. So much of the future seems obvious in fact that not much of it is exciting anymore.

But at the same time software is bigger than ever and is moving faster than ever.

As the biggest software trend that’s already four years old, social media is still changing and is still disrupting. It’s one of few software trends ever to go mainstream, and new privacy concerns still come up, most recently with the use of real identities and with social sharing. Most surprisingly is that new start-ups come out with new products and services every month.

There’s still a lot of unresolved issues with software in general that the world is dealing with. Software patent litigation, government injunctions, IPOs, and more direct competition than ever between the biggest companies in the world. Maybe the most profound change is the rise of the app ecosystems, markets ruled by private corporations.

It’s a volatile time as traditional industries that have been around for centuries are being disrupted. Publishing of newspapers, magazines and books, brick and mortar stores, television, movies and music. Better experiences delivered through new hardware and software are disrupting these industries.

These industries will always exist, and we already have an idea how we’ll experience them (Tablets, ultra-portable laptops, NFC, Smart phones, the Internet of Things). In the next few years we’ll see some try to save their businesses, and we’ll see others use innovative software to completely reimagine them.

Discovering over the next 10 years what that software will look and how it will work is what really excites me.