It's the biggest shift in technology since the advent of the Internet, and mobile is still only just beginning.
FORTUNE -- "I remember traffic lights before smartphones," sighed a friend as we sat in traffic behind a car that remained still after the light had turned green. Sure enough, the driver's head was tilted downward as if lost in solemn prayer -- or, more likely, a texting/map/music app -- a small illustration of how mobile devices have changed everyday life.
What did we use to do to kill time in slow-moving checkout lines before we had Facebook (FB) or Twitter to distract us? How did we, before we had weather apps, check the forecast for breaks in the rain to walk the dog? How did we settle bar arguments on film and sports trivia without instant access to the web in our hands? How did all the urgent work tasks handled in text messages or networks like Yammer (MSFT) ever get accomplished?
Those days seem distant now, but for most it's only been a couple of years. And yet each quarter seems to bring a series of new, subtle changes to our lifestyles as mobile devices grow more powerful, LTE networks become speedier and apps themselves more creative in design. We socialize with phones or tablets as we watch TV programs. We watch our shelves of CDs gather dust as we tune into Spotify or Rdio. We discover how much work can, after all, be accomplished on a tablet instead of a laptop.
Read more...